Coca-Cola fails to use more reusable packaging and ensure that millions of single-use plastic bottles do not end up in the oceans

Oceana condemns Coca-Cola’s failure to promote reusable packaging and calls on the company and its bottlers to submit a plan to achieve the company’s reuse goal.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Coca-Cola Company recently reported that the share of total beverage volume it sold in reusable packaging in 2023 was just 14%, unchanged from the 14% Coca-Cola reported for 2022. This update comes more than two years after Coca-Cola pledged to use 25% reusable packaging by 2030, and follows the company’s reporting last year that reuse declined 2 percentage points from 2020 to 2022 (from 16% to 14%). Earlier this year, most of the company’s largest bottlers reported declining sales of beverages in reusable packaging. Given this lack of progress and the lack of commitment from the company’s bottlers, Oceana is calling on Coca-Cola to disclose its plan for how the company intends to achieve its reuse target by the 2030 deadline.

Coca-Cola’s alleged lack of progress follows the company’s woes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which marked the first time drinks were served in reusable cups on a large scale. Due to alleged operational considerations and other company decisions, millions of drink servings from single-use plastic bottles were transferred to those cups, leading to widespread criticism of the company and its Olympic partners.

“The numbers in the company’s latest ‘environmental update’ make it clear: Coca-Cola is not on track to meet its reuse goal, which is terrible news for the oceans,” said Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of Oceana. “The company has made no progress and none of its largest bottlers have made the commitments needed to meet that goal. It’s time for the company to disclose to investors and customers exactly how it will meet its 25 percent goal by 2030. More reusable packaging means less single-use plastic. The oceans cannot afford to see the world’s largest plastic polluter break that promise, as recent reports suggest.”

Oceana estimates that if Coca-Cola meets its commitment to make 25% of its packaging reusable, it could avoid producing over 100 billion single-use 500ml plastic bottles and cups. Based on global aquatic plastic pollution rates from a recent peer-reviewed study, Oceana estimates that approximately 8.5 to 14.7 billion plastic bottles and cups could be prevented from reaching our waterways and oceans. According to the Break Free From Plastic Brand Audit, Coca-Cola has been the world’s largest plastic polluter for the past six years. Reusable bottles, the predominant form of reusable packaging used by Coca-Cola and its bottlers, are reused up to 50 times, depending on the material (plastic or glass). Each use replaces a single-use plastic bottle that would otherwise be discarded or thrown away – either path could end up in the ocean.

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Nearly all of the company’s major bottlers – which account for nearly half of all the company’s sales – reported reusable packaging (as a percentage of their total sales) at levels below what they sold when the company first made its commitment in 2022. None of Coca-Cola’s top five bottlers have made an ambitious commitment to increase reusable packaging. Instead, the two largest bottlers of reusable bottles in the Coca-Cola system, Arca Continental and Coca-Cola FEMSA, have since adopted targets to below their original percentages stated when Coca-Cola first made its commitment.

• Coca-Cola FEMSA accounted for nearly a quarter of all Coca-Cola’s reusable packaging globally in 2023. The company reported that the share of reusable packaging in total sales decreased from 34% in 2021 to 32% in 2023. In addition, Coca-Cola FEMSA stated in its latest integrated annual report that the company had set a target of making 25% of packaging reusable by 2030, a decrease of nearly 10 percentage points from when Coca-Cola first made the commitment.

• Arca Continental, which accounted for more than 10% of all Coca-Cola’s reusable packaging in 2023, reported a decline in its reusable share from 26% in 2021 to 22.7% in 2023. To support the Coca-Cola commitment, Arca Continental has also set a target of generating 25% of its total sales in reusable packaging – one percentage point less than the share of reusable packaging it sold in 2021.

• The Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (Coca-Cola HBC), which accounted for more than 5% of all Coca-Cola’s refillable sales in 2023, reported that its refillable share (excluding the recently acquired operations in Egypt) was 13.6% in 2021 and 13.3% in 2023.

• Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) – the world’s largest bottler of Coca-Cola products – reported that its share of reusable packaging increased slightly from 10.4% in 2021 to 11.4% in 2023. CCEP has not made any public commitment to increase the share of reusable packaging.

Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated exclusively to protecting the oceans. Oceana is rebuilding lush and biodiverse oceans by enforcing science-based policies in countries that control a quarter of the world’s wild fish catches. With more than 300 successes stopping overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales and sharks, Oceana’s campaigns deliver results. A restored ocean means 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to find out more.

Contacts: Gillian Spolarich, Anna Baxter | Email: [email protected], [email protected]