Study confirms Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are worst offenders

Fewer than 60 multinationals are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that, based on the findings of a piece of research published on Wednesday.

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

“Production really is pollution,” says one of the study’s authors, Lisa Erdle, director of science at the non-profit The 5 Gyres Institute.

An international team of volunteers collected and surveyed more than 1,870,000 items of plastic waste across 84 countries over five years: the bulk of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage, and tobacco products.

  • Flying Squid
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    118 months ago

    Really? That’s exactly the order I would have expected.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
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      8 months ago

      I would have thought Nestle to be higher. They are massive pieces of shit that poison children, after all. I figured they’d be putting plastic in the ocean on purpose like a Captain Planet antagonist.

    • @jeffwM
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      68 months ago

      PepsiCo is bigger than Coke, for one

      • Flying Squid
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        128 months ago

        PepsiCo owns Lays, which makes dry food. Coca-Cola mostly stays with beverages these days.

        • @jeffwM
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          68 months ago

          Sure, but some of that food is in plastic containers. Pepsi owns a shit ton of brands. By revenue, they are twice as big as Coke

          • Flying Squid
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            58 months ago

            I’d say the facts speak for themselves.

          • lad
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            38 months ago

            Then it makes them four times more ecological in a way, if that’s even applicable to a company producing that much pollution

    • @Zehzin
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      48 months ago

      I expected McDonald’s to be up there.

      • @[email protected]
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        58 months ago

        Maccies has had paper cups, fry holders and wrappers for at least two decades, and now everything used within the, er, “restaurant” is reusable

        Is it different where you are?

        • lad
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          18 months ago

          They still use plastic straws in some places, and paper cups contain plastic, but yeah they don’t seem to produce so much of (plastic) waste

        • @Zehzin
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          18 months ago

          Definitely plastic cups but paper straws for some reason