
Coca-Cola Named Most Polluting Brand in Plastic Waste Audit - hckr_nj
https://theintercept.com/2019/10/23/coca-cola-plastic-waste-pollution/
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jamesrcole
The "Coca-Cola was found ... to be the most polluting brand" point seems
ridiculous.

It's not the only point in the article, but is the only one I'm commenting on
here.

It's basically, "the majority of plastic waste comes from the company that
sells the majority of the products" (or if they aren't selling the majority of
the products, the article doesn't argue they have an outsize contribution),
and it is implying that somehow Coca-Cola is where the blame for this
pollution lies.

But what evidence are we given that they're worse than other companies, that
it's not just because they sell the most popular products? The article doesn't
give any (it does not say why they are comparatively worse). And nor does the
article argue why the fault should be with the product producers. Are they the
ones dumping the used containers in the ocean? What about the government
policies regarding recycling or waste management? Or consumer behavior
regarding waste?

I'm sure some people are going to see this comment as somehow just trying to
defend a big corporation, but that is not my goal at all. I'm interested in
the quality of the discussions surrounding these issues, and I'm trying to
point out that the article's discussion doesn't meet very high standards.

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hcarvalhoalves
Relative rankings serve more as PR tools for the brands themselves than
anything else. Pollution matters in absolute numbers. It's only fair the
company that sells the most plastic to also be held accountable for the most
plastic waste.

E.g. Coca-Cola could claim to have reduced their use in plastic in 25% and
still be the most polluting brand.

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jamesrcole
> It's only fair the company that sells the most plastic to also be held
> accountable for the most plastic waste.

What would you suggest they do to reduce the amount of waste?

If the products are sold in plastic bottles, there are severe limits to what
the control the company has once the product is in the hands of the consumers.

If we're talking about government regulations, why is that company to be held
accountable for those regulations?

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hcarvalhoalves
They can sell in non-plastic packaging. They can invest in research of
biodegradable packaging. They can collect the packaging.

There's a lot a company can do.

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jamesrcole
There’s some questions you have to ask about potential courses of action.
Because what a company can do is restricted to what it is economically viable
for them to do. Actions that are not economically viable would put them out of
business. They would make their product go up in cost to a large enough degree
that people wouldn’t purchase their products. And you can’t just wave this
issue away by pointing out that the company is very wealthy.

So we have to ask whether it is economically viable to, say, collect the
packaging. I imagine that country-wide programs to do this would be very
expensive.

Of the ones you mention, I imagine that research is the most likely to be
viable (keep in mind it’s not just the research but also finding a material
that is economically viable to produce) But how do you know they aren’t
already doing that?

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rini17
I do know Coca-Cola was lobbying against mandatory returning of bottles
against deposit in my country (Slovakia). It was already implemented in the
90s and no major increase of cost happened, but they didn't like it anyway.
It's just usual corporate penny-pinching (and in your case, probably FUD).

In Germany collection of bottles has been implemented all the time and it is
definitely not "very expensive". In Slovakia it is planned to start again
since next year or so.

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jamesrcole
We were talking about the company selling the products being responsible for
collecting the products, not for whether there were voluntary collection
schemes.

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rini17
No, about what the company was accountable for.

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jamesrcole
The quote in question that I was responding to was “They [Coca-Cola] can
collect the packaging.”

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carrozo
Would be great to have a global synchronised boycott of their products to
force some action here. Pretty sure spooked shareholders will drive overnight
packaging innovation.

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anonymfus
I think there is a need for some boycott aggregator where reputable
organisations would register their boycotts and users would subscribe by
organisations and causes, and can check products they are about to buy by
scanning barcode...

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kraken0101
not surprising

