56 Companies Responsible for Half of Global Plastic Pollution That Researchers Could Trace

A new study on plastic pollution in 84 countries has linked half of branded plastic pollution to only 56 firms, with about 24% of the branded plastic waste analyzed connected to only five companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone and Altria.

A team of researchers analyzed plastic pollution data from the Break Free From Plastic Brand Audit. The data spanned a total of 1,576 brand audit events over five years, from 2018 to 2022.

The analysis revealed about 52% of the 1,873,634 plastic items in the study were unbranded, which could be because sunlight, water or other environmental factors caused fading on labels.

“We found over 50% of plastic items were unbranded, highlighting the need for better transparency about production and labeling of plastic products and packaging to enhance traceability and accountability,” the authors wrote in the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances. “We suggest creation of an international, open-access database into which companies are obliged to quantitatively track and report their products, packaging, brands, and releases to the environment. Additionally, we recommend development of international standards around the branding of packaging to facilitate their identification.”

Of the remaining plastic items that did have visible branding, the study revealed the highest amount could be linked to one firm, The Coca-Cola Company, with 11% of the plastic waste items. The other brands linked to the highest number of analyzed plastic pieces include PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%) and Altria (2%). In total, these five brands made up about 24% of the branded plastic waste items.