Drinks firms criticised over recycling practices
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - 10:56:40
Research published by Greenpeace last month found that the number of plastic bottles produced by beverage giant, Coca-Cola, alone last year was over 100 billion. Now campaigners are calling on companies to take greater responsibility for the mountains of waste which are created by their products, according to the Guardian.
Some believe that one answer is to embrace a deposit-style system for drinks containers which was once prevalent in an age when glass was the material of choice, rather than plastic. Others argue that the modern bottles themselves are not easy enough to recycle to encourage companies to offer this kind of service, hence a broader need for changes to design.
This problem is compounded by the fact that companies like Coca-Cola have been unwilling to pass on specific data about the number of disposable bottles they produce annually, largely for fear of the negative press that this will generate. In spite of this, the Greenpeace report suggests that the use of plastic in packaging has actually risen over the past half decade.
In the UK alone, this equates to a daily use of 16 million plastic bottles, most of which are not recycled but either end up in general waste or are discarded elsewhere, presenting an environmental issue for councils and land owners.
Responding to the study, Coca-Cola said that it has spent the past decade cutting the amount of plastic used in its packaging and boosting the volume of recycled materials which are present.
Scotland has already rolled out a deposit scheme to encourage recycling, which Coca-Cola itself has supported. This points to the likelihood that changing consumer habits will have a more positive impact on the environment than attempting to coerce corporations into cleaning up their acts on a world wide scale.
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