Page 22 - Plastics News April 2017

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Greenpeace study finds fault with bottle sustainability

By Jim Johnson

Greenpeace is taking a big swing at plastics packaging in the soft drink industry, urging the
bottling industry to use more recycled plastics

he issue of plastic waste management is being needed to tackle it,” the report states. William Dermondy
Tdiscussed world over, and Environmental campaigners Jr. is vice president of policy for the American Beverage
are working hard to ensure bottle manufacturers use more Association, a trade group.
of recycled plastics than the conventional PET. Greenpeace “The issue of plastic waste is important as is the reason it is
, an NGO described as the most visible environmental happening. Ocean Conservancy’s landmark 2015 study says
organization in the world is taking a big swing at plastics the vast majority of the ocean’s plastic waste is coming
packaging in the soft drink industry, urging the bottling from developing countries and a high concentration from
industry to use more recycled plastics and alleging the emerging nations that have poor refuse collection systems.
world’s top brands are failing to address ocean plastics Improving those systems would dramatically reduce the
pollution.
amount of waste of all kinds from entering oceans,”
A new survey released by the environmental group aimed Dermondy said in a statement.
to gather information from the six largest global soft drink
companies. Results, Greenpeace said, shows that recycled
content constitutes a small fraction of the PET used to
create bottles around the world.

Greenpeace reached out to Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo,
Suntory, Danone, Dr Pepper Snapple and Nestlé to gauge “For decades now beverage companies have been at the
the use of recycled PET in new containers while using the forefront of the global drive to conserve, recycle and
hot-button issue of ocean plastics pollution as a backdrop. reuse resources. We are making strides in protecting the
Coca-Cola did not disclose global figures, the group said. environment by reducing emissions, increasing water
efficiency, improving recycling systems and lowering
“The survey reveals that despite urging customers to be
environmentally friendly, the top six soft drinks companies our carbon footprint, he continued. “We are making
in the world use a combined average of just 6.6 percent 100 percent recyclable containers of plastic, aluminum
recycled PET globally,” the new report states. and glass, and our companies are eager to use as
much recycled material as is feasibly possible for new
“That equates to 14 times less recycled plastic than virgin containers. More can be done to ensure these recyclable
plastic used across their global packaging. Furthermore a materials wind up being recycled and our companies are
third of the soft drinks brands surveyed (Dry Pepper Snapple doing that, from funding recycling receptacles for public
and Suntory) currently have no targets to increase their parks and recreation areas to supporting single-stream
[recycled] PET in their plastic bottles,” the report reads. comprehensive recycling systems in cities.”
Aside from the recycled content issue, Greenpeace alleged The survey revealed some interesting numbers regarding
the survey results “revealed a woeful lack of action by the use of PET in the soft drink business. Greenpeace said
the soft drinks industry to prevent their plastic bottles its numbers show that more than 2.2 million tons of plastic
ending up in oceans.” bottles will be used to package soft drinks this year. And
The group said that while soft drink companies are on that does not include any statistics from Coke.
board with regard to climate change issues, some brands “Coca-Cola’s unaccounted-for plastic usage makes the
“are failing to even acknowledge their role in the ocean sector’s actual plastic footprint much, much larger,” the
plastics problem, let alone take the ambitious action report states.

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