Coca-Cola under fire for allegedly misleading consumers about its products: 'There is no such thing'

An Ipsos survey recently found that recycling claims on plastic packaging have significantly misled consumers to believe they were more environmentally conscious than they really are, Food & Drink Technology reported.

What's happening?

The study, commissioned by ClientEarth, surveyed consumers and looked at companies operating across Europe in order to assess the gap between consumer perception and environmental reality.

While more than 70% of respondents viewed plastic packaging as harmful to the environment, anywhere from 58% to 72% of respondents also viewed packaging as environmentally positive when it contained the labels "fully recyclable" or "contains recycled plastic."

Unfortunately, ClientEarth emphasized, recycling does not make plastic environmentally positive — or even neutral. Although 80% of respondents believed that a recycling logo meant the item would be properly recycled, this is actually the case less than half the time.

"There is no such thing as truly circular plastic. The process continuously degrades the properties of plastic, making genuinely circular recycling impossible," ClientEarth explained. "Consumers should be aware it can only ever delay plastic pollution, not stop it. Consumers are made to believe recycling is much more effective than it actually is. Only 9% of plastic ever made has been recycled."  

Why is plastic pollution so harmful?

Plastic doesn't just stay put where it ends up, whether that's in a landfill, in a field, or in an ocean. Instead, it degrades over time, leaching microplastics and chemicals into its surroundings. From there, they end up in the food we eat, the water we drink, and inside our bodies. And with the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks of plastic being dumped into oceans, rivers, and lakes every day, per the United Nations Environment Programme, it's a problem nearly too large to comprehend.

Instead of being discarded or recycled, some other plastic items are burned, which just releases those pollutants directly into the atmosphere — hardly better than being left on the ground.

"This doesn't mean recycling is useless, but it does mean that we can't have companies exaggerate recycling into a solution for plastic packaging," said ClientEarth lawyer Kamila Drzewicka.  

What's being done to hold companies accountable?

Drzewicka also pointed out how the eco-friendly labeling that misleads consumers also enables the same companies to pollute even more.

"Labels promising recyclability and sustainability lead consumers to believe that plastic packaging is actually positive for the environment. This kind of advertising enables even more plastic production," she explained.

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This is why several consumer protection groups and other legal organizations have launched lawsuits against some of the world's worst polluting companies, like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Danone, Keurig Dr Pepper, and ExxonMobil.

Coca-Cola, in particular, is the world's leading producer of branded plastic waste. It's a status that has earned it a lot of negative attention and pressure from advocacy groups around the world, including a greenwashing lawsuit over its advertising in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In response, the company has adjusted its practices in certain areas, such as building a LEED-certified production facility and experimenting with shipping pallets made from organic materials like coconut husks. And recently, the European Commission announced that Coca-Cola will remove some of the misleading recycling labels from its packaging.

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