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November 2022 - Utilities

70% of branded litter found at locations around the UK can be traced to 12 companies: A survey by ocean conservation charity, Surfers Against Sewage has claimed to have found that 70% of the litter found following a volunteer-led litter-pick can be traced back to a dozen well-known parent companies.

The research was conducted by 4,000 citizen science volunteers across the UK who collected litter on UK beaches, streets, rivers and countryside and recorded their findings over the course of a year. Its findings provided data for Surfers Against Sewage in the charity's annual report to highlight the huge issue of packaging pollution.

Litter found throughout the UK

The report found that most of the branded packaging could be traced back to 12 major parent companies.

This year's findings recorded that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo remain the number one and two leaders when it comes to the parent companies of litter found during the research, while McDonalds has moved into third position.  It also found that there had been a fall in the number of branded alcohol products found, with Ab InBev, Carlsberg and Heineken all moving down positions.

Surfers Against Sewage also claim that almost half the reported packaging would be covered by a deposit scheme return which would give customers a financial incentive to return used bottles and other packaging so they could be recycled.

Overall, 28,737 items were collected throughout the 12-month study (branded and unbranded, with 10,843 branded items of collected linked to 264 companies.

Looking at beaches, tobacco products made up 15% of all littler found on UK coastline, with more than a quarter of unbranded rubbish found being cigarette ends which pollute beaches with both toxic chemicals and single-use plastic.

Surfers Against Sewerage is calling for an all-in deposit return scheme for drinks containers to hep tackle the issue, with Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, commenting:“Legislation such as an ‘all-in’ deposit scheme needs to be introduced urgently and governments must hold these companies to account."

In response to the research, a Coca-Cola spokesperson said:

“It’s disappointing to see any packaging being littered and that’s why we fully support the introduction of a well-designed deposit return scheme, which we know from results in other countries will encourage people to recycle, rather than litter or throw away", while a spokesperson for PepsiCo said: “We also believe that deposit return schemes can provide a critical source of high quality, clean recyclate which is why we continue to be supportive of well-designed schemes."

A spokesperson for McDonalds also responded to the research findings, saying: “Over 90% of the packaging we use comes from recycled or renewable sources, and can be recycled.

“As a business we have committed to sourcing all of our packaging from renewable and recyclable materials by 2025.

“We remain committed to finding innovative ways to tackle the issue of packaging waste and are trialling a number of initiatives to help reduce littering.”

According to Surfers Against Sewage the parent companies with the most packaging found were:

1. Coca-Cola
2. PepsiCo
3. McDonalds
4. Anheuser-Busch InBev
5. Mondelez International
6. Nestle
7. Tesco
8. Red Bull GmbH
9. Suntory
10. Carlsberg Group
11. Heineken Holding
12. Mars

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