Surfers Against Sewage exposes Coca-Cola as top UK plastic polluter

British marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has revealed the ‘Dirty Dozen’ companies responsible for over two thirds of branded pollution, with Coca Cola topping the list for the fourth year running.

McDonald’s has overtaken PepsiCo in 2023 to secure second place, with one in 10 polluting items collected by citizen scientists during the brand audit attributed to the fast-food giant. Together, the three biggest polluting brands were responsible for a staggering 37 per cent of all branded pollution – down only two percentage points from last year’s figure.

“The results of this year’s brand audit are shocking, but sadly not surprising,” says Izzy Ross, campaigns manager at Surfers Against Sewage. “Year on year we’re seeing the same culprits responsible for disgusting amounts of plastic pollution on our beaches, and in our cities and countryside.

“This ‘Dirty Dozen’ of plastic polluting companies need to clean up their act. They must be held accountable for their pollution and driven to do more to adopt circular business models to reduce their plastic and (by extension) their carbon footprint. These industry giants have the power to save or condemn our ocean. At the moment they’re choosing the latter.”

The fishing industry has emerged as a leading source of plastic waste in 2022/23, with fishing gear making up 11 per cent of items found during the audit. The SAS has also highlighted that this year’s audit was the first to identify a significant number of vape and e-cigarette products, with 131 items logged in this category.

The brand audit report is a yearly publication analysing data collected by volunteers during SAS’s Million Mile Cleans – which see communities from across the UK come together to clean up coastlines, canal paths, bridleways and city streets over a 12 month period. This year over 4,000 volunteers took part in 499 cleans.

SAS says it is calling on corporations to clean up their act on plastic pollution by taking responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, reducing their packaging, and adopting circular business models. 

2023’s Dirty Dozen, as identified by Surfers Against Sewage’s Brand Audit, are as follows:

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

All images courtesy of Surfers Against Sewage.