logo-loader

Coca-Cola named most common brand in UK seaside pollution

Published: 12:27 11 Aug 2021 BST

The Coca-Cola Company - Coca-Cola named most common brand in UK seaside pollution
(Source: Surfers Against Sewage)

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) was the top brand in the “dirty dozen” of discarded plastic found on UK beaches.

A study by marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) found that two-thirds of the UK's plastic and packaging pollution can be traced back to just 12 companies.

READ: Coca-Cola ups guidance after strong second quarter

Coca-Cola accounted for 16% of bottles and cans found on beaches, followed by PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP), Anheuser-Bush InBev, McDonald's, Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) International and Heineken.

Tesco, Carlsberg Group, Suntory, Haribo, Mars and Aldi were also among the most commonly picked up.

“Serial offenders including Coca-Cola – which tops the leader board year on year as the worst offender – are still not taking responsibility,” said SAS chief executive Hugo Tagholm.

“Legislation such as an ‘all-in’ deposit scheme needs to be introduced urgently and governments need to hold these companies to account and turn off the tap of plastic and packaging pollution flooding the ocean.”

The group is calling on companies to reduce their packaging and switch to refill models, as well as on the government to expand measures beyond small containers classified as ‘on-the-go'.

The UK also needs legislation that ends the production and consumption of non-essential single-use polluting plastics, that ensures effective resource use and waste management and business models within companies that are focused on reduction and reuse, SAS said.

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

2 hours, 20 minutes ago