Dirty Dozen: 12 companies accused of being responsible for over half of UK's packaging pollution

Ocean conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage has today published a major new report revealing how 12 companies are responsible for nearly two thirds of all branded packaging pollution across the UK.

The annual Citizen Science Brand Audit records the brands of packaging collected as part of the UK's biggest beach clean-up event. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) - the company behind Budweiser and Stella Artois - and McDonalds were named as the top four companies responsible for packaging pollution, with just 12 firms found to be responsible for 65 per cent of all the packaging waste collected.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have remained in the top two positions since 2019, and together with AB InBev were responsible for over 33 per cent of all branded pollution found. Coca-Cola products were being picked up three times more often than other brands during the audit.

The rest of the top 12 companies, which also included Cadbury's parent Mondelez International, Heineken, Tesco, Carlsberg Group, soft drink giant Suntory, Haribo, Mars, and Aldi, were found to together be responsible for 48 per cent of all branded pollution collected.

"Our annual Brand Audit has once again revealed the shocking volume of plastic and packaging pollution coming directly from big companies and some of their best-known brands," said Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage. "Serial offenders, including Coca-Cola - which tops the leader board year on year as the worst offender - are still not taking responsibility."

The data for this year's audit was collected as part of the campaign group's Million Mile Clean initiative, which sees a team of 100,000 volunteers collect litter while walking 10 miles. For the audit, over 3,000 volunteers recorded a total of 9,998 branded items.

AB InBev jumped up five places on the list of worst performers this year, climbing from eighth place in 2019, with Stella Artois and Budweiser listed among the ten most polluting brands. The report suggests the closure of pubs, bars, and restaurants due to the COVID-19 pandemic had led to an increase in packaging pollution from alcoholic drinks.

Tagholm noted that despite the increase in single-use plastic during the pandemic, personal protective equipment (PPE) represented only 2.5 per cent of unbranded plastic pollution. "We cannot allow polluting industries to use the current health crisis to deflect from their own damaging behaviours and put the blame on the individual - we must demand action now," he said.

The charity is urging companies to reduce their packaging and switch to refill-based models of consumption, while also calling on the government to implement legislation to improve waste management practices and curb the production of single-use plastics. Campaigners have repeatedly called on the government to fast-track plans for a national Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and extend it to all forms types of bottles. The scheme would ask consumers to pay an up-front deposit on bottled items of any size and material, which is then repaid on return of the container to designated DRS machines. The approach has been shown to drastically improve recycling rates in other countries, and today's report said an effective DRS could see 52 per cent of pollution from the worst offending companies captured for recycling.

The government is facing growing calls to deliver on long-standing plans to tackle plastic waste and boost recycling rates through the introduction of the proposed national DRS and new extended producer responsibility rules, which would require manufacturers to cover more of the cost of recycling plastic packaging.

"Legislation such as an 'all-in' deposit scheme needs to be introduced urgently and governments need to hold these companies to account and turn off the tap of plastic and packaging pollution flooding the ocean," said Taghold.

To coincide the launch of the report the charity has today installed an art installation at Watergate Bay in Cornwall to draw attention to the damage to landscapes and oceans caused by packaging pollution. The installation consists of a giant pipe overflowing with plastic pollution that falls on to the beach below.

Commenting on the results of the audit, Brendan Godley, chair of Conservation Science and Exeter Marine strategy lead, said: "Plastic packaging is polluting the ocean, impacting marine species and destroying habitats. The findings of Surfers Against Sewage's Beach Brand Audit highlight the types of pollution that are escaping into the marine environment and the brands that are responsible. I believe that this kind of work is critically important in order to urge companies to urgently reduce their packaging pollution before it is too late."  

In response to the report, Coca-Cola said the company was working with organisations across the UK to encourage recycling and fully supported the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme. "Like everyone, we care about reducing packaging waste and we don't want to see any of our packaging end up where it shouldn't," the company said in a statement. "All of our packaging is 100 per cent recyclable and our aim is to get more of it back so that it can be recycled and turned into new packaging again."

A spokesperson for PepsiCo similarly defended the company's track record in tackling packaging pollution. "Protecting the planet is really important to us and we share people's concerns about litter," they said. "It's why we've been supporting the Great British Spring Clean for the past three years - an event which brings together more than 600,000 people across the UK to collect waste from communities. All of our packaging is also labelled with messaging encouraging the responsible disposal and, wherever possible, the recycling of packaging."

They also highlighted the company's support for more ambitious circular economy policies. "We're committed to helping create a circular economy for plastic packaging where people can put all types of packaging into their home recycling bin," they said. "As part of this, we have committed to putting all our ready-to-drink beverages in Great Britain into 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles by the end of 2022. Earlier this year, we joined forces with industry peers to launch the Flexible Plastic Fund to help boost recycling rates for plastic food packaging, including crisp packets."

A spokesperson for McDonald's similarly defended the company's track record on tackling litter. "Over 90 per cent of the packaging we use comes from recycled or renewable sources, and can be recycled, and we continue to work hard to increase that number," they said. "We remain committed to finding innovative ways to tackle the issue of packaging waste and are trialling returnable coffee cups in conjunction with global reuse platform, Loop, to help reduce the amount of single use coffee cups being used. We also encourage our customers to dispose of their packaging responsibly and recently funded a ground-breaking trial run by [environmental charity] Hubbub, to map littering behaviour using drone technology to inform a behaviour-change campaign."

AB InBev was also contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of going to press.