The world has a plastic problem, especially in our planet’s oceans. In fact, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an estimated area around twice the size of the state of Texas. Now, a new study looking at traceable plastic has discovered that just a few companies are responsible for a massive portion of all of it. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00The world has a plastic problem, especially in our planet's oceans, with the Great Pacific
00:05Garbage Patch covering an estimated area around twice the size of the state of Texas.
00:10Now a new study looking at traceable plastic has discovered something pretty wild.
00:14An incredible 24% of all traceable plastic can be linked to just five companies.
00:19The study was conducted by an international team of researchers from 2018 to 2022,
00:24looking at some 1.8 million individual pieces of plastic waste.
00:28Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were some of the worst offenders, accounting for 11%
00:32and 5% of the plastic waste respectively. Nestle, makers of both food and beverages,
00:37was also in the top five. Meanwhile, French-based food product corporation Danone
00:42and American tobacco product manufacturer Altria round out the rest.
00:46According to the researchers, increased accountability to just a handful of companies
00:50could be a game-changer with regards to combating plastic waste.
00:54Writing in their recently published paper, quote,
00:56phasing out single-use and short-lived plastic products by the largest polluters
01:00would greatly reduce global plastic pollution. The researchers say that on-the-go consumption
01:05of food and beverage items means they are less likely to make their way into a bin,
01:08recycling or otherwise, meaning they are far more likely to end up here.