Coca-Cola accused of quietly dropping its 25% reusable packaging target

Exclusive: Campaigners say company’s apparent abandoning of 2030 pledge is a ‘masterclass in greenwashing’

Coca-Cola has been accused of quietly abandoning a pledge to achieve a 25% reusable packaging target by 2030 in what campaigners call a “masterclass in greenwashing”.

The company has been previously found by researchers to be among the world’s most polluting brands when it comes to plastic waste.

In 2022, the company made a promise to have 25% of its drinks sold in refillable or returnable glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers that could be filled up at fountains or “Coca-Cola freestyle dispensers”.

But shortly before this year’s global plastics summit, the company deleted the page on its website outlining this promise, and it no longer has a target for reusable packaging.

Instead, its packaging targets now say it will “aim to use 35% to 40% recycled material in primary packaging (plastic, glass and aluminum), including increasing recycled plastic use to 30% to 35% globally”. Its previous goalpromised to “use 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030”.

The current pledge also says the company will “help ensure the collection of 70% to 75% of the equivalent number of bottles and cans introduced into the market annually”.

When the target was announced in 2022, Elaine Bowers Coventry, the company’s chief customer and commercial officer, said: “Accelerating use of reusable packages provides added value for consumers and customers while supporting our world without waste goal to collect a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030.”

The original pledge was removed from the company’s website at some point after 20 November, which was when the global plastics treaty negotiations began. The company’s new announcement includes no mention of its reusable commitment.

This week, nearly 200 nations failed to reach an agreement to reduce the production of plastics at a meeting in Busan, South Korea. The week of talks could not resolve deep divisions between “high-ambition” countries seeking a globally binding agreement to limit production and phase out harmful chemicals, and “like-minded” nations who want to focus on waste.

Campaigners have called on companies such as Coca-Cola to move from recycled plastic targets to reusable bottle targets, because it is single-use items that are the problem, and recycled single-use items still end up polluting the environment most of the time.

“Coke’s latest move is a masterclass in greenwashing, ditching previously announced reuse targets, and choosing to flood the planet with more plastic they can’t even collect and recycle effectively. This only reinforces the company’s reputation as the world’s top plastic polluter,” said Von Hernandez, the global coordinator of the campaign group Break Free from Plastic. “If they can’t even keep their low-bar commitments, how can they claim to be serious about addressing the global plastic crisis?”

The Coca-Cola Company has been contacted for comment. It previously told the Guardian: “We care about the impact of every drink we sell and are committed to growing our business in the right way.”

Cover photo: By The Guardian