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Does the Coca-Cola and The Ocean Clean Up partnership go far enough?

On World Ocean’s Day 2021, GOOD’s Founder and CEO Chris Norman responds to last week’s partnership announcement between Coca-Cola and The Ocean Clean Up: 

The news that Coca-Cola is The Ocean Clean Up’s first Global Implementation Partner is being heralded as positive action by the soft drink behemoth. Whilst this is definitely a step in the right direction, and we support the work The Ocean Clean Up undertakes, it is inadequate relative to the amount of single use plastic Coca Cola is responsible for ending up in rivers and oceans every year. 

According to a recent Ocean Clean Up study, 1000 rivers account for nearly 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean. Coca-Cola was named the world’s worst plastic polluter for the third year in a row in the Break Free From Plastic annual report. 

With that in mind, Coca-Cola’s commitment to part fund projects to remove plastic from just 15 rivers is inadequate. It doesn’t come close to cleaning up the millions of tons of single use plastic they continue to produce that ends up in rivers and oceans.  

Coca-Cola may be one of the seven top polluters to join The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, but they have made little to no progress on their own 2025 goals to address the plastics crisis they are responsible for. 

If Coca-Cola are serious about tackling the problem, they need to make a far more significant commitment to removing their discarded products. They also need to show measurable and clear commitment to reducing the quantity of single use plastics they produce at scale within the next 5 years. 

So, whilst funding of some of The Ocean Clean Up projects should be welcomed; the scale of commitment makes it feel like an insincere gesture.  

Currently the people paying the price for Coca-Cola’s neglect towards the impact of their products are those suffering from plastic pollution around the world; if Coca-Cola don’t commit to proportionate action there is little doubt that their shareholders will end up paying the price through the courts or punitive legislation. 

Coca-Cola’s shareholders have an important choice, to continue to act with disdain towards the people and communities it relies on and pay the consequences or be recognised as one of the leading and most loved brands who helped create a better future for us all by removing their plastic pollution from the environment and ceasing to use single use plastic.