Big Brands have no plans to tackle plastic pandemic - Greenpeace

A Greenpeace report has revealed that well-known consumer brands are sitting on their hands when it comes to plastic pollution.

"A Crisis of Convenience: The corporations behind the plastics pollution pandemic" surveyed 11 household name brands including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Johnson and Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive.

The report outlines the degree to which the commitments, actions and performance of these big corporations are addressing the environmental challenges posed by single-use plastics.

"We hoped to identify industry leaders through this process, but instead found that the whole sector has failed to take responsibility for the plastic pollution crisis and is instead trying to maintain the status quo," says Ahmad Ashov, Global Plastics Project Leader, Greenpeace Indonesia.

The document shows that all current public commitments by these companies would allow for an increased use of single-use plastic in the future.

"Despite growing evidence of the impacts of plastic pollution, their current business models have no plans to put the brakes on the production of is single-use plastics, with the assumption that ultimately all plastic packaging can, and will be recycled," said Emily Hunter, Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace NZ.

"Yet we know we can't recycle our way out of the plastic crisis," says Hunter.

Globally, more than 90% of all plastics produced in the world have never been recycled.

The problem is only getting worse as the plastics industry is expected to grow by 40% over the next ten years with $180 billion USD investment last year in new plastic production facilities.

According to the NZ Packaging Council , New Zealanders consume about 735 thousand tonnes of packaging every year.

Nearly half of our plastic packaging is dumped into landfills (352 thousand tonnes) each year, with other packaging leaking into our environment or shipped overseas to lower-income countries that are becoming inundated with the global plastic waste trade.

Greenpeace New Zealand is calling on the Government to adopt new regulations that holds corporations accountable for their plastic pollution, by phasing out the top polluting plastics and promoting innovative solutions in new delivery systems for the products we need.

For full details of the plan, visit: Plastic-Free NZ.

Notes:

The Greenpeace report, "A Crisis of Convenience: The corporations behind the plastics pollution pandemic", focuses on 11 of the biggest companies in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector: Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Johnson and Johnson, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Nestlé, Mondelez, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

Key findings:

Single-use packaging is the main delivery system used by all of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, with no signs of changing.

None of the surveyed FMCG companies have comprehensive strategies that include commitments to move away from single-use plastic.

Most FMCG companies are actually increasing the amount of single-use plastic packaging and waste they produce.

Most FMCG companies know or disclose little about the amount of their packaging that is recycled and even less about the destination of their plastic waste after consumption.

Despite their significant plastic footprint, solutions being explored by businesses are primarily related to addressing recyclability or recycling, not reducing or creating new delivery systems.

There is a lack of transparency in the sector and few FMCG companies are willing to disclose important data about their plastic use.

Photo and video here: https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MZIFJWQQ88P

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