An investigation just revealed that Coca-Cola is lobbying to stop simple deposit return schemes that would reduce plastic bottle pollution by millions. 

 

Out of 35 million plastic bottles used every day in the UK alone, as many as 16 million go unrecycled -- filling up our landfills and littering our beaches and oceans. 

It doesn’t have to be this way: thanks to a simple bottle deposit scheme, Germany has a bottle recycling rate of 98.5%. But with officials discussing the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme here in the UK, Coca-Cola lobbyists are pulling out all the stops to protect the corporation’s profits at the expense of the planet.

Almost half of our plastic bottles go unrecycled -- a totally unsustainable level of pollution. Which is why environment ministers have planned to propose a bottle deposit scheme to address this recycling crisis. By adding a few pence to the price of a bottled drink, which anyone can reclaim when they recycle the bottle at a store or drop off point, we can take a huge chunk out of plastic waste. 

But Coca-Cola is more worried about its profit margins than anything else. Coke executives met with ministers in Westminster and Scotland to stress their opposition to the plan, according to a Greenpeace report. In the US, Coke filed a 2015 report claiming that a deposit initiative “could reduce our profitability.” 

Right now, government ministers are wavering -- a huge public outcry could force them to make the right decision.

We’ve fought Coke’s anti-environmental lobbying in the past, and won. In 2013, 100,000 of us came together to sign a petition opposing Coca-Cola’s crusade to block similar recycling schemes in Australia. Together, we have the power to hold our officials accountable to us, not Coke’s agenda.