Which Plastic Companies Are the Biggest Polluters?

For 5 years, an international team of volunteers actively conducted a study, collecting and surveying more than 1,870,000 plastic waste items across 84 countries.

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In April 2024, their research concluded that 56 companies are responsible for over half of the world’s plastic pollution. Shockingly, just six of these companies contribute to a quarter of this pollution.

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The team found that most of the waste comes from the packaging of everyday items like food, drinks, and tobacco products.

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Growing plastic crisis

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Every year, we produce about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of which ends up in landfills.

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We're dumping the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes every day.

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This waste is impacting marine life, killing hundreds of thousands of them every year.

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Plastic waste is also impacting human health. We are ingesting microplastic contaminated water and food, leading to endocrine disruption, insulin resistance, and in some cases even cancer.

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The biggest plastic polluters

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The research study found that out of more than 1.8 million pieces of plastic waste collected, more than 50% had no discernible branding. So these pieces could not be attributed to a brand.

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For the remaining 900k pieces, the researchers identified that 50% of them came from just 56 multinational companies and only 6 companies were responsible for a quarter of this. This includes The Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%).

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The researchers also found that for every percentage increase in plastic produced, there was an equivalent increase in plastic pollution in the environment.

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What are the big polluters saying?

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The Coca-Cola Company said that it is stepping up its game, promising to make all its packaging recyclable by 2025 and to use at least 50% recycled material in packaging by 2030.

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Nestlé is also on the move, having cut its virgin plastic usage by 14.9% in the last five years and it is actively investing in waste collection and recycling schemes worldwide.

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Danone also has a strong focus on the recyclability of our packaging.

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But here's the kicker. These multinationals could be cutting down their plastic production or switching to alternative materials. Instead, they're still playing the recycling card.

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Recycling has been hailed as the silver bullet for the plastic crisis. But only 9% of the world's plastic is recycled, it's clear that we need to find better solutions.

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We need to phase out single-use and short-lived plastic products. We need companies to cut down on plastic production and to finance the clean-up operations of the waste they have created so created.

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In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to adopt a legally binding global plastics treaty by the end of 2024.

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Since then, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) has held four sessions, the most recent being INC-4 in Ottawa, Canada, which concluded on April 29, 2024.

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Unfortunately, till now, the talks have not addressed the need to reduce the production of new plastics and to hold the polluting companies accountable for existing waste.

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We hope that changes with the last and 5th session scheduled in Busan, South Korea in November 2024.

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