Photo: Anastasija Vujic, iStock
A new report found that 56 companies could be responsible for a majority of the world’s plastic pollution.
Environmental advocacy nonprofit 5 Gyres Institute had more than 100,000 volunteers collect and log nearly 1.9 million plastic waste items in 84 countries between 2018 and 2022. In that audit, 50% of the waste they found was unbranded. Of the branded portion, they found that the top five companies responsible for that waste were the Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestle (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%). Combined among all the top polluters, 56 companies contributed to more than 50% of the branded count.
In its findings, 5 Gyres suggests a “paradigm shift” in how polluters are regulated, urging governments to institute voluntary or mandatory initiatives to limit plastic production.
