As Coca-Cola’s traditional festive ad blitz returns to our screens, looking to take us back to imagined childhood Christmases of bright red-lighted trucks adorned with chubby-cheeked Santas making their way through Christmas snow with the promise of Christmas cheer, the appeal of the soft drink giant has soured somewhat for at least some of its target market.
The company has watered down its commitment to recycling and reusing, drawing condemnation from environmentalists.
Coca-Cola this week said it now aimed to use 35-40 per cent recycled material in primary packaging such as plastic, glass and aluminium by 2035, compared with a previous goal of at least 50 per cent by 2030.
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It also diluted its goal for recycling bottles and cans. It now wants to “help ensure the collection” of 70-75 per cent of bottles and cans entering the market by 2035. Coke had earlier sought to collect and recycle one bottle or can for each one sold by 2030.
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The victory of climate-change sceptic Donald Trump in winning the presidency of the United States may or may not have had something to do with the policy shift to considerably less challenging sustainability goals. However, it did not escape notice that the changes have only emerged since the outcome of the US presidential and congressional elections became clear.
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A 2022 pledge to sell 25 per cent of its beverages in refillable or returnable containers by 2030 in what it then boasted was an “industry-leading target for reusable packaging” is no longer visible on its website at all, with a search for the relevant page throwing up only a 404 error message.
BreakFreeFromPlastic, a global environmental group, said that what the Coca-Cola Company announced this week as an “evolution” in its environmental goals marked a retreat from already “low-bar commitments”.
“Coke’s latest move is a masterclass in greenwashing,” the group’s global co-ordinator said, adding that the focus on “failed recycling goals” only “reinforces the company’s reputation as the world’s top plastic polluter”.
“Coca-Cola’s pledge lasted less time than one of their reusable bottles might expect to be in circulation,” said Sam Pearse, campaign director of The Story of Stuff Project.
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