The study, conducted by the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, involved surveys of plastic waste collected from 2018 to 2022.
Of more than 1.8 million pieces of waste collected, over 900,000 had visible branding. The researchers identified fewer than 60 companies as the source of the majority of global plastic waste, and five companies as the source of 24 percent of it.
Coca-Cola alone was the source of 11 percent of global branded plastic pollution, the biggest single contributor identified by the researchers. The other four biggest producers were, in order, PepsiCo, Nestle, Danone and Altria.
The study also found that for every 1 percent increase in plastic usage, its contribution to plastic pollution increases 1 corresponding percent.
It comes in the wake of a February report by an anti-plastic production group that the vast majority of plastics cannot be fully recycled and thus typically are consigned to landfills instead. A separate report from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory indicated that the plastics industry releases up to quadruple the amount of planet-warming gases as air travel.
“The thing that really surprised me the most was the relationship between plastic production and plastic pollution,” Win Cowger, a research director at the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research and the lead author of the study, told The Hill in an interview.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
