Coca-Cola has been accused of quietly abandoning a pledge to achieve a 25% reusable packaging target by 2030 in what campaigners call a “masterclass in greenwashing”.
The company has been previously found by researchers to be among the world’s most polluting brands when it comes to plastic waste.
In 2022, the company made a promise to have 25% of its drinks sold in refillable or returnable glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers that could be filled up at fountains or “Coca-Cola freestyle dispensers”.
But shortly before this year’s global plastics summit, the company deleted the page on its website outlining this promise, and it no longer has a target for reusable packaging.
I’m not advocating for people not doing things within their power and influence (i.e. influence their friends and family), but I think it’s clear that systematic collective change is more effective than expecting billions of people to change their individual choices.
Advertising works, and Coca Cola Company has effectively endless resources for advertisement.
We have to push to influence legislation that will force companies to comply. Otherwise we’re just complaining endlessly about people not doing the right thing while these companies freely profit at the expense of the environment.