As Coca Cola Continues to Preach The Gospel of Safer Environment, Question is Asked About its Commitment

Constantly, the PR unit of the Coca Cola Company sends out statements on the company’s commitment to the well-being of the environment and its people, but then again, questions continue to be asked about its commitment to what it preaches.

A report in 2021 detailed how Coca Cola delivers its myriad products in 100 billion brand new plastic bottles per year — about 12 bottles for each of the 8 billion people on the planet. Yes, Coke sells more plastic each year than any other company and its virgin plastic is made with the fossil fuel natural gas. Given the volume, Coke products generate as much CO2 as two large coal generating plants. These petrochemical plants also spew other toxic pollutants on nearby communities. Once bottled, trillions of gallons of beverage are shipped to retailers with diesel trucks that spew even more carbon and other pollutants.

As always, the Coca Cola Company has released a statement reaffirming its commitments to ensuring a safer environment for humanity, calling on stakeholders to join hands to raise awareness on the negative effect of degradation on planet earth.

In the statement to join the rest of the world to celebrate this year’s World Earth Day tagged “Invest in our Planet”, the company said the World Earth Day celebrated on every April 22nd to raise awareness on the degradation and possible extinction of planet earth, is a call to action by all and sundry to put in deliberate and conscious efforts to protect the environment.

The statement added that according to environmentalists and climate change experts, one of the rising concerns of the earth is the climate change phenomenon which it said is attributed to the release of hazardous gaseous substances into the air and the indiscriminate disposal of industrial waste. 

But Coke is known to be the king of global plastic pollution. Studies show that Coca Cola plastic waste is more prevalent in beach and sea than any other consumer product company globally. Faced with this damning reality, Coca Cola has, since the 1970s, been promoting “recycling” as the great solution. The truth is, used plastic has very little value, and there’s little incentive to collect and reuse it. If Coke was actually serious about its “Vision for a World Without Waste” it would support costly Deposit Refund Systems, refillable and eliminate virgin plastics. Instead, as sales have grown over the years ‘we the people’ suffer Coke’s impact on global warming and plastic pollution while the company generates outsize profits and its executives become hundred millionaires.

Beyond releasing statements, Coke needs to do more to save the environment. There is no denying that there is an attempt, but the little is lost when you pay lip service than actual engagement.

For three straight years, Coca Cola has been named world’s worst plastic polluter. A company like that should put in more effort rather than releasing some unrealistic statements.