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Coca-Cola appears to have abandoned a pledge to achieve a 25% reusable packaging target by 2030 after the company deleted the page on its website outlining this promise.
The Guardian reports that campaigners are calling the move a “masterclass in greenwashing.”
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 sometime after November 20, and shortly before this year’s global plastics summit, the company deleted the page on its website. Instead, its packaging targets now say it will “aim to use 35% to 40% recycled material in primary packaging (plastic, glass and aluminum), including increasing recycled plastic use to 30% to 35% globally.” Its previous goal promised to “use 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030.”
The current pledge also says the company will “help ensure the collection of 70% to 75% of the equivalent number of bottles and cans introduced into the market annually.”
The Guardian says the Coca-Cola Company has been contacted for comment. The company has been previously found by researchers to be among the world’s most polluting brands when it comes to plastic waste.
In October, the Los Angeles Times reported that Los Angeles County has filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and PepsiCo — the world’s largest beverage companies — claiming that they lied to the public about the effectiveness of plastic recycling and, as a result, left county residents and ecosystems choking in discarded plastic.
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