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Last week, a coalition of 185 investors that manages over $10tn in combined assets signed a statement directed at fast moving consumer goods and grocery companies, urging a reduction in plastics usage. The statement is directed at all brands, and names nearly forty companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper, and PepsiCo. The investors seek action to address toxicity in value chains, to reduce reliance on single use plastics, and to support ambitious policy as opposed to seeking to thwart it.

In response, Defend Our Health’s Senior Market Campaigner, Maya Rommwatt, said: 

“This statement by investors managing over $10tn in assets shows the movement away from plastic packaging is rapidly gaining momentum and that investors are becoming aware of the risk to their portfolios that unchecked and excessive plastic packaging poses. That risk is delivered in the form of toxic chemicals in food packaging, the perpetuation of environmental racism in the supply chain, the greenhouse gas emissions polluting our climate, and the plastic waste pollution choking our bodies and planet. If the companies that embrace and perpetuate excessive plastic packaging do not act soon to reduce their use of the problem material, it’s clear they will begin to face grave consequences.

Fast moving consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have spent years greenwashing their excessive plastic use through efforts to undermine common-sense regulation and by failing to meet their own plastics packaging targets. All the while the plastic crisis has continued to balloon and is projected to keep growing. Plastic packaging is so ubiquitous it’s become a serious threat to public health due to both what’s in the plastic and how it’s made. Plastics are made with numerous potentially harmful chemicals that are released into the air and water during production, and that process impacts communities of color and low-income communities disproportionately. Moreover, many of those chemicals remain in the plastic and may threaten the health of consumers.

If the companies that are perpetuating the plastic crisis truly want to be a part of the solution, they must stop polluting our communities with toxic chemicals and poisonous air and water emissions. Beverage brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi could immediately reduce their toxic burden by sourcing PET plastic bottles that use safer alternatives to antimony–the carcinogenic catalyst currently being used. Furthermore, these brands should be seeking emissions reductions at fence line communities where their plastic bottles are manufactured. And they would move much more quickly to reuse and refill systems and draw down their plastic use if they’re serious about reducing their enormous toxic plastic and climate footprint. Sadly, we have not yet seen that level of commitment to public health and justice from these brands, to the point that major investors are raising alarms.”