Report | March, 2025
Coca-Cola’s World With Waste
Coca-Cola has a plastic problem. Oceana’s report projects The Coca-Cola Company’s plastic use will exceed 9.1 billion pounds (4.1 million metric tons) per year by 2030 if the company does not change its practices. This would be nearly a 40% increase over the company’s reported plastic use in 2018 and a 20% increase over the company’s most recently reported plastic use in 2023, which was already enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 100 times.
The report also estimates that up to 1.3 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of the plastic packaging that Coca-Cola uses annually by 2030 would enter the world’s waterways and oceans if the company continues on its current course. This amount of plastic could fill the stomachs of over 18 million blue whales.
There is a solution to this problem. Oceana found that if Coca-Cola were to reach 26.4% reusable packaging by 2030 (up from 10.2% in 2023), the company could “bend its plastic curve” — reducing its annual plastic use below current levels. Reusable bottles can be used up to 25 times if made of plastic and up to 50 times if made of glass. Meaning, a reusable bottle prevents the production and use of up to 49 additional single-use bottles.
The Coca-Cola Company, however, communicated in December 2024 that it had discarded its goal to increase reusable packaging to 25% of the company’s sales along with other components of the company’s “World Without Waste” program. It did so even though the company – just two months later – stated that reusable packaging is “important to the company’s RGM Revenue Growth Management) capabilities.”
In place of its former goals, Coca-Cola announced it is focused on increasing the use of recycled content and on the collection of its single-use plastic bottles for recycling. The company disclosed that it had invested nearly $1 billion to buy recycled plastic in 2022 (in place of virgin plastic). And yet, as Oceana’s report details, collecting plastic for recycling, and selling single-use packaging with recycled plastic content, will not reduce the company’s overall plastic footprint.
Coca-Cola already faces increasing scrutiny for its plastic use. A peer-reviewed study in the journal Science found that Coca-Cola was the number one polluter of branded plastic found in the environment. Coca-Cola may face even more criticism given the company’s rapidly growing plastic footprint and mounting public concern about the impact of plastic on human health. Studies are increasingly connecting plastics and the chemicals used in plastics to health issues like cancer, infertility, heart disease, autism, and diabetes.
Coca-Cola needs to take real action that can address its plastic problem now, namely replacing single-use packaging with reusable packaging. Investors must understand that Coca-Cola’s persistent reliance on plastic is exacerbating pollution, environmental degradation, and climate change. They must put pressure on the company to reduce its use of plastic through increasing reusable packaging.
To support this transition, policymakers should consider putting policy measures in place that will ensure that Coca-Cola’s plastic problem — which is a global concern given the size of the company’s single-use plastic footprint — is addressed.
Resources:
- Press release
- Media kit
- Coca-Cola disputes and critiques some of the conclusions and methodologies in this report. For Coca-Cola’s full response, please see here
Media contacts:
- Gillian Spolarich, gspolarich@oceana.org
- Anna Baxter, abaxter@oceana.org
