The Coca Cola Company was founded in the late 19th century. Today it is one of the most popular worldwide companies with annual revenue of USD 32 billion. However, throughout its existence, the company has faced criticism, which it has successfully covered up.
What is the problem?
Coca- Cola is the largest producer of single-use plastic in the world. It manufactures 3 million tonnes of plastic a year, how does the company respond to such allegations?
“We will continue to package in plastic as customers like lightweight bottles.”
In 2017, Greenpeace published a report criticising Coca-Cola for failing to meet their targets – namely those of sourcing 25% of plastic bottles from recycling and failing to introduce any targets for reducing the use of single-use plastic. Coca-Cola actively lobbied against recycling programmes in several European countries. At the same time, the company maintained its green marketing facade by making public donations to similar programs (causing greenwashing).
Coca-Cola launched its new ‘green’ drink in the hope of reaching health-conscious consumers. The cola drink with the vibrant green label contains fewer calories and less sugar.
It is an example of how changing a logo, calling a drink healthier and painting it green can trick people into thinking they are making a healthier choice for themselves and the environment, which is not true.
Moreover, over the three years of the Brand Audit Cleanups, thousands of volunteers collected the most litter in the most places from Coca-Cola than from any other brand. In addition, the organisation needs three litres of water to produce one litre of Coca-Cola. To satisfy these water requirements, the company takes control of water sources around the world.
Coca-Cola often chooses impoverished areas where it is easier for cheap water and marketing propaganda about alleged help and investment in developing countries. One example is India, where the company set up a bottling plant in the village of Kaladera in late 1999. Farmers there rely on access to groundwater, but since the arrival of Coca-Cola, they have faced a serious water decline, thus putting entire families at risk of losing their livelihoods. Between 1995 and 2000, the water level was stable, and after Coca-Cola built the factory, the water level dropped by 10 metres in five years.
Another example is San Cristobal De Las Casas in Mexico, where the town’ wells are drying up while the Coca-Cola factory uses 1.08 million litres of water a day. With no sewage system and wells drying up, residents must walk two hours a day to get water for daily use.
However, there is no shortage of water at the FEMSA factory, as Coca-Cola can afford to draw water from a lower level than the villagers can. How much do they pay for access to water? 2600 pesos, less than £100 a YEAR. Therefore, in the villages it is easier to buy Coca-Cola than water, which is even worse when we know that cola consumption is the main cause of diabetes, which in turn is the biggest cause of death in the country.
One million plastic bottles are sold every minute worldwide and 91% of them are not recycled. Every day the plastic pollution crisis seems to be growing. There is no perfect solution and if plastic is an effective and affordable source material, political and environmental pressure is the primary mechanism to influence global brands.
How can we help to prevent this?
- Do you think this topic is important? Share it with your friends and show what Coca-Cola is doing.
- Please stop buying coke! It is neither a good option for your health and especially for the environment!
- Educate yourself! Checking where products come from and how they were produced. That gives you a better idea of what practices companies are using. If you do not know the answers to these questions, you can find out with a bit of research.