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Coca-Cola has drawn condemnation from environmentalists after the soft-drink maker weakened its recycling and reuse goals for tens of billions of bottles each year.
The company said late on Monday that it was now aiming to use 35 to 40 per cent recycled material in primary packaging such as plastic, glass and aluminium by 2035, compared with a previous goal of at least 50 per cent by 2030.
It also watered down its goal for recycling bottles and cans, and is now seeking to “help ensure the collection” of 70-75 per cent of bottles and cans entering the market by 2035. Coke had earlier sought to collect and recycle one bottle or can for each one sold by 2030.
“We are extremely disappointed” by the Coke announcement, said Kelly McBee, circular economy manager at As You Sow, a California non-profit that applauded an earlier packaging commitment from Coke. “Now, to see those completely taken off the table, it is pretty devastating,” she said.
The retreat from one of the US’s iconic brands comes as global powers struggle to agree on how to combat a surge in plastics pollution. Talks over the world’s first legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution collapsed in Busan, South Korea over the past week.
Coke’s network generated 5.97mn tonnes of packaging in 2023, a sum which included 137bn plastic bottles and 74bn aluminium and steel bottles and cans, according to a report from the company.
“We remain committed to building long-term business resilience and earning our social license to operate through our evolved voluntary environmental goals,” said Bea Perez, Coke’s global chief communications, sustainability and strategic partnerships officer.
In 2022, Coke committed to selling 25 per cent of its beverages in refillable or returnable containers by 2030 in what it called an “industry-leading target for reusable packaging”. The announcement is now missing from the its website.
The company this week said it would invest in refillable packaging “where infrastructure already exists”.
Matt Littlejohn, senior vice-president of strategic initiatives at Oceana, an environmental group, called Coke’s moves “short-sighted” and “irresponsible”.
“Coca-Cola’s new policy makes it likely that many more billions of single-use plastic bottles and cups will continue to flood into our waterways and seas,” he said.
Beverage companies face mounting litigation risks over their plastic output. In October, Los Angeles County sued Coke and Pepsi for allegedly claiming plastic containers “are ‘recyclable’ despite knowing that plastics cannot be readily disposed of without associated environmental impacts”.
Coke also on Monday scrapped its commitment to sourcing all priority agricultural ingredients according to its Principles for Sustainable Agriculture, which cover matters such as workplace rights and forest conservation. It said it would continue to seek to “support sustainable sourcing”.
With regards to the climate, the company had previously pledged to cut its emissions by 25 per cent by 2030, from a baseline of 2015, the year of the Paris climate agreement. That accord sought to limit the rise in global average temperatures since pre-industrial times to well under 2C and ideally to 1.5C.
Coke this week adjusted its greenhouse gas pollution targets to saying it would aim to cut emissions from a 2019 baseline in accordance with a 1.5C-degree trajectory by 2035. It did not set out a percentage reduction.
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