A new report by international development and relief agency Tearfund claims that single-use bottles, sachets and packets produced by the companies are being burnt in developing countries at an alarming rate and contributing to the climate crisis in the process. The Burning Question report found that the four global companies create enough plastic pollution to cover 83 football pitches every day. According to the report, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever are responsible for half a million tonnes of plastic pollution that is burnt or dumped annually in six developing countries – China, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria. The plastic is burnt or discarded as the nations don’t have the capacity or recycling infrastructure to handle that volume of material. According to the report, the wastage that is burnt creates emissions equivalent to 4.6 million tonnes of CO2 – the same as two million cars on UK roads.
Coca-Cola was found to produce around 200,000 tonnes of plastic pollution across the six nations – around eight billion bottles according to the report. PepsiCo was found to have a plastic pollution footprint of 137,000 tonnes per year, Nestlé produced 95,000 tonnes and Unilever 70,000 tonnes.
As well as exacerbating the climate crisis, a 2019 report from Tearfund found that between 400,000 and one million people die each year in developing countries because of diseases that are related to mismanaged plastic and waste.
With just 14% of all plastic packaging produced collected for recycling globally, the report focused on the four companies in part due to their plastics footprints. However, Tearfund has previously engaged with all four firms, asking them to disclose their footprints on a country-by-country basis and sharing a methodology to do so. While all but Coca-Cola have made new commitments since Tearfund first interacted with them, only Unilever had committed to reducing its total plastics usage. It also notes that a “few positive cases” are emerging, including Unilever’s dispensing delivery system in Chile and Coca-Cola’s returnable bottles in Brazil. Tearfund has called on the four firms to report the number of units of single-use plastic products they use and sell by the end of the year, before reducing that amount by 50% by 2025.
Source: edie
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