Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution
Win Cowgera b✉, Kathryn A. Willisc d, Sybil Bullocke, Katie Conlonf, Jorge Emmanuelg, Lisa M. Erdleh, Marcus Eriksenh, Trisia Angela Farrellyi, Britta Denise Hardestyc d, Kristiina Kergej, Natalie Lik, Yedan Lik, Adam Liebmanl, Neil Tangrim n, Martín Thielo p q, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómezr, Tony Robert Walkers, Mengjiao Wangt
- aMoore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, Long Beach, CA 90803, USA
- bUniversity of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92501, USA
- cCSIRO Environment, Hobart, Tasmania 7000, Australia
- dCentre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7000, Australia
- eBreak Free From Plastic, Quezon City 1100, Philippines
- fSchool of Urban Studies, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201, USA
- gInstitute of Environmental and Marine Sciences, Silliman University, Dumaguete City 6200, Philippines
- h5 Gyres Institute, Santa Monica, CA 90409, USA
- iSchool of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Papaioea Palmerston North, Aotearoa, New Zealand
- jEstonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
- kFreelance Researcher
- lDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN 46135, USA
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Abstract
Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the environment. We used data from a 5-year (2018-2022) worldwide (84 countries) program to identify brands found on plastic items in the environment through 1576 audit events. We found that 50% of items were unbranded, calling for mandated producer reporting. The top five brands globally were The Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%), accounting for 24% of the total branded count, and 56 companies accounted for more than 50%. There was a clear and strong log-log linear relationship production (%) = pollution (%) between companies' annual production of plastic and their branded plastic pollution, with food and beverage companies being disproportionately large polluters. Phasing out single-use and short-lived plastic products by the largest polluters would greatly reduce global plastic pollution.