Coca-Cola calls back packaging reuse target, NGOs demand leadership initiative

Coca-Cola has removed its target to achieve 25% reusable packaging by 2030. While the company says it plans to continue reuse investments, NGOs call the move “frustrating.”

Coca-Cola updated its Voluntary Environmental Goals this week. “As we note, this evolution is informed by learnings gathered through decades of work in sustainability, periodic assessment of progress and identified challenges,” a company spokesperson tells Packaging Insights.

“These are complex, challenging areas, and to help deliver on our progress, we need more time and more focused resource allocation on issues that are critical to our business and where we can make a meaningful difference.”

Matt Littlejohn from Oceana, a US-based ocean conservation organization, tells us: “Coca-Cola’s decision to prioritize recycling and recycled content is a step backward in terms of actually reducing single-use plastic and pollution. The company is backing the wrong horse.”

“Plastic reduction and reuse is the better path forward for tackling plastic pollution, and the frustrating thing is that the company knows this from its involvement in the UN Global Plastic Treaty discourse.”

The Coca-Cola spokesperson says: “As it relates to packaging, we intend to continue to invest in expanding the use of refillable packaging in markets where infrastructure is in place to support this important part of the company’s portfolio.”

Reducing packaging waste

Oceana’s Littlejohn says that Coca-Cola should be showing leadership on the matter of packaging, not reverting to its targets.

“Businesses have been advocating for plastic reduction and reuse. They have been saying the right things, but actions speak louder than words. Coca-Cola’s latest decision to erase important goals and weaken its sustainable packaging strategy is a bad sign that the company is not prepared to walk the talk,” he continues.

The Coca-Cola spokesperson comments: “Achieving ambitions will require continued investments in innovation and infrastructure solutions, enabling legislation and further collaboration with our bottling partners, industry peers, local governments and civil society.” 

Littlejohn argues that the recently concluded INC-5 negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty have “for the most part influenced the global conversation on sustainable packaging and corporate responsibility for the better.” 

“Change is on the horizon. A growing majority of voices are calling loudly for the ambitious, legally binding measures covering the full life-cycle of plastics that are necessary for curbing plastic pollution. It isn’t clear how much longer it will take for an agreement to be made and what this will ultimately look like, but governments and companies must not use the stalled negotiations as an excuse for inaction.”

“Every minute, the equivalent of two garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the oceans — the oceans can’t wait for inaction. Solutions to the plastic crisis already exist — like scaling up reusable packaging systems in place of single-use plastic — and both companies and national governments have it within their power to start doing what is needed now,” says Littlejohn.

The Coca-Cola spokesperson adds: “We remain focused on working alongside partners to support our efforts to reduce packaging waste.”