Cop27 sponsor Coca-Cola named ‘top plastic polluter’ for fifth year in row

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Cop27 sponsor Coca-Cola has been named the top plastic polluter for the fifth year in a row, enraging climate activists worldwide. “It falsely and deceptively informs us and other Filipino consumers that we are making an environmentally responsible choice when we purchase and dispose of their plastic packaging in the barangay, municipal or city recycling bins and materials recovery facilities.” Some activists held a demonstration at the Cop27 venue in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, demanding to “kick the polluters out”. In a statement to The Independent, a Coca-cola spokesperson said:“Our support for Cop27 is in line with our science-based target to reduce absolute carbon emissions 25 per cent by 2030, and our ambition for net zero carbon emissions by 2050.” The company said its “World Without Waste” strategy “sets ambitious goals for our business, starting with helping to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell – regardless of where it comes from – by 2030”. open image in gallery A visitor photographs a bear made of plastic waste in the Green Zone of the Cop27 climate conference Von Hernandez, global coordinator of Break Free From Plastic, said: “For decades, the public has been conditioned to believe that the problem of plastic pollution, now manifesting in the unprecedented, pernicious, and wide-ranging contamination of all life on the planet, was caused by their own undisciplined ways and the failure of governments to institute and implement proper waste management systems.” “Our brand audits have now exposed the real causes of this crisis – and it is mainly due to the irresponsible and predatory practice by corporations of saturating our societies with single-use plastics of all kinds with no consideration of how they can be managed in an environmentally safe and benign manner,” he said.