In the run-up to the 2024 Olympics, over 100 sports organizations and athletes have signed a letter led by Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana and EcoAthletes calling for The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners to increase reusable packaging and tackle plastic pollution.
Taking place in Paris, the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is expected to be the largest sporting event ever to serve beverages in reusable packaging. It is anticipated that the move could save ‘millions’ of single-use plastic cups.
Now the letter’s signatories are encouraging Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola Europacific partners to use the games as a ‘launchpad’ to introduce reusables to future sporting events – citing their concern about the ongoing plastic pollution crisis. Recycling alone will not overcome plastic pollution, they say, with only 9% of all plastic waste ever generated thought to have been recycled.
Instead, the signatories call upon big brands to reduce plastic production and transition into reuse systems. Research from Oceana suggests that, by increasing reusable beverage packaging by only 10% worldwide, the packaging industry could negate the need for over one trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups, and keep up to 153 billion out of the world’s waterways and oceans.
Annual brand audit data collected by the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement also indicates that The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo are among the world’s top plastic polluters. As such, the letter focuses its attention on reducing the companies’ virgin plastic production.
They are encouraged to ‘dramatically’ increase their reusable packaging offerings by 2030 by making reuse an option for their global customers. They are asked to ensure that future Olympics and other major sporting events adopt reusable packaging over single-use.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners should also advocate for legally binding targets and other mechanisms to implement reusable packaging into national legislation via the United Nations’ Global Plastics Treaty, the letter states.
Oceana, #BreakFreeFromPlastic, Adansonia.green, Defend Our Health, Front Commun pour la Protection de l’Environnement et des Espaces Protégées, Greeners Action, Habits of Waste, and Retorna supported the letter.
Among its 113 signatories are eleven organizations and 102 athletes, representing 43 sports across 30 countries. Over 50 Olympians, Paralympians, world championships, and world record holders have signed, including 22 athletes who will be competing at the Paris 2024 Games.
These include Italy’s 39-time freediving world record holder Alessia Zecchini; two-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Zach Apple from Team USA; and Team Great Britain’s Andy Macdonald, who will skateboard at the Paris 2024 Games.
“Escalating plastic pollution poses a massive threat to the oceans and our health,” said Dr. Shelley Brown, director of Sailors for the Sea. “Plastics are everywhere, from floating on the surface of the ocean, to sitting at the deepest point of the ocean floor, to the air we breathe and the water we drink.
“We must reduce the amount of single-use plastic being produced. The answer is simple – we need more reuse and less single use.”
“In sports, the scoreboard doesn’t lie,” continued Lew Blaustein, founder and CEO of EcoAthletes. “When it comes to plastic pollution and its many public health and climate impacts, humanity is behind and in dire need of a comeback.
“Recycling won’t get us there, not even close. The only way we can get to where we need to go on plastic pollution is a systemic commitment to exponentially grow reuse and a dramatic draw down of single use.”
“I’ve competed in events around the world – and everywhere I sail, I find single-use plastics polluting our waters and shorelines,” said Lara Dallman-Weiss, Olympic sailor in mixed 470 sailing for Team USA. “One thing is clear, more needs to be done to stop the plastics crisis.”
A similar open letter saw Vytal, Interzero, Bumerang, and other players in the reuse industry write to the European Parliament last year calling for a ban on single-use packaging for on-site consumption – as well as mandatory reuse quotas and measures against reuse loopholes – to be added to the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. It asserted that serving food in single-use packaging on an eatery’s premises is ‘no longer ethical’.
PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company also contributed to a study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation asserting that an effective scale-up of returnable packaging solutions could be as economically attractive as single-use alternatives and unlock a ‘reuse revolution’. Its most ambitious scenario foresaw that returnable plastic packaging could lower greenhouse gas emissions and water use by 35% and 70% compared to single-use plastics.
In other sport-related developments, CLUBZERØ and Barclays served ice cream in returnable pots at this year’s Wimbledon Championships. With a mass sporting event in the UK feared to generate up to 7 tonnes of waste, the system hopes to reduce single-use packaging waste as attendees wait to enter the Grounds.
evian also provided attendees with natural mineral water via a refill system in hopes of encouraging refill and reuse behaviour. The same service was introduced for players last year.
Update – In response to this article, Coca-Cola told us:
”We care about the impact of every drink we sell. Our packaging goals aim to help eliminate waste and increase reuse across the Coca-Cola system. In 2022, approximately 14% of total beverage volume was served in reusable packaging, showcasing progress toward our goal to have at least 25% of our beverages worldwide by volume sold in refillable/ returnable glass or plastic bottles or in fountain dispensers with reusable packaging by 2030.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games, we will provide drink fountains with refill options, returnable glass bottles and plastic bottles made with 100% recycled materials (excluding cap and label). Paris 2024 will provide reusable cups, and fans and athletes can also use refillable bottles. During the Olympic Games, we will also work to collect and recycle bottles.
We know more must be done. We will continue to collaborate across industries to share learnings and innovate. You can read more about our progress, which we report on annually, in our 2022 Business and Sustainability Report.”
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