Oceana, a large international advocacy organization dedicated to ocean conservation, released a new report that projects The Coca-Cola Company’s plastic use will exceed 9.1 billion pounds per year by 2030 if the company does not change its practices. This would be nearly a 40 percent increase over the company’s reported plastic use in 2018 and a 20 percent increase over the company’s most recently reported plastic use in 2023, which was already enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 100 times.
The report also estimates that up to 1.3 billion pounds of the plastic packaging that Coca-Cola uses annually by 2030 would enter the world’s waterways and oceans if the company continues on its current course. This amount of plastic could fill the stomachs of over 18 million blue whales.
“Coca-Cola’s future is currently tied, like an albatross around its neck, to single-use plastic,” said Oceana’s senior vice president Matt Littlejohn. “Singleuse plastic is bad for the oceans, human health, and business. Recycling can’t solve the company’s out-of-control plastic problem. Reuse can.”
Oceana found that if Coca-Cola were to reach 26.4 percent reusable packaging by 2030 (up from 10.2 percent in 2023), the company could “bend its plastic curve” reducing its annual plastic use below current levels. Reusable bottles can be used up to 25 times if made of plastic and up to 50 times if made of glass. Meaning, a reusable bottle prevents the production and use of up to 49 additional single-use bottles.
In place of its former goals, Coca-Cola announced it is focused on increasing the use of recycled content and on the collection of its single-use plastic bottles for recycling. The company disclosed that it had invested nearly $1 billion to buy recycled plastic in 2022 (in place of virgin plastic). And yet, as Oceana’s report details, collecting plastic for recycling, and selling single-use packaging with recycled plastic content, will not reduce the company’s overall plastic footprint.
“Single-use plastic bottles made with recycled content can — just like bottles made of virgin plastic — still become marine pollution and harm ocean life,” Littlejohn added.
Published April 2025
