Coca-Cola’s Environmental Impact

Communities across the globe are increasingly becoming conscious of the environmental impact of different organizations, especially concerning accountability for waste disposal. As is the case with the Coca-Cola Company, corporations that package their products in plastic containers have been in the spotlight for flaunting waste disposal and management rules and regulations in different jurisdictions. Baroni (2021)reports that Coca-Cola tops the list of plastic waste producers across the globe, generating over 2.9 million tons of plastic annually. The production of these plastic bottles is dependent on fossil fuels, meaning a significant production of greenhouse gases.

Coca-Cola's overdependence on plastic bottles for packaging its products places the company in a controversial position. Flaharty (2021) asserts that Coca-Cola has consistently ranked among the world's most polluting companies, as evidenced by analyses of plastics collected during beach cleanups across different parts of the world. In 2019, a beach cleanup exercise on 484 beaches in over 50 different countries saw 11,732 plastic bottles from Coca-Cola, which was more than the combined amount of the other three leading polluters, including Nestle and PepsiCo, and Mondelēz International (Petter, 2019). This high volume of plastic waste generated is a major environmental concern, considering the already known implications of poorly disposed of plastics.

Radical policy changes in how Coca-Cola handles the plastic waste menace are highly recommended. It is time for the company to focus on innovating reusable and refillable packaging containers. As the giant beverage company it is, Coca-Cola can dedicate sufficient resources to finding a sustainable solution to the plastic waste challenge. Nevertheless, the continued dependence on single-use plastic bottles will continue to pose more danger to land and marine life, as recycling efforts have proven ineffective and futile already.