Eight billion Coca-Cola bottles burnt or dumped each year

A New report points a finger at Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever as being jointly responsible for half a million tonnes of plastic pollution burnt or dumped per year in six developing countries.

Tearfund has found that the emissions produced from the open burning of plastic packaging on street corners, open dumps and in backyards in developing countries is a major contribution to the climate emergency.

Creating emissions equivalent to 4.6 million tonnes of CO2, Coca-Cola was found to be the worst of the four companies investigated with 200,000 tonnes of plastic pollution and PepsiCo second worst with a plastic pollution footprint of 137,000 tonnes.

The findings, part of the organisation’s Rubbish Campaign targeting the four global companies, show that sustainable refillable and reusable packaging alternatives instead of single-use plastic packaging and sachets are essential to preventing further climate damage.

Tearfund is the first NGO to quantify the link between the burning and dumping of plastic in developing countries from multinationals and climate change. The research focussed on plastic pollution in six developing countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Since May 2019 Tearfund’s Rubbish Campaign has been challenging companies with a four-point plan to step up the pace to take responsibility for their plastic pollution. Tearfund has ranked how well the companies are doing in committing to this plan, with the league table revealing that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are barely off the starting blocks, but Unilever is beginning to progress.

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