The first comprehensive survey of the plastic usage policies of the biggest global soft drinks brands has found they use less than 7% recycled plastic in their products.
Greenpeace has surveyed Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Suntory, Danone, DrPepperSnapple and Nestle.
It found five of the big six companies sell a combined total of 2.16 million tonnes of plastic bottles a year.
Despite producing 100% recyclable bottles, they use a combined average of just 6.6% recycled plastic in their products
Louise Edge, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace, told Sky News: “There’s a huge problem with plastic waste in our oceans.
“We know that 12 million tonnes of plastic are ending up in our oceans every year.
“To give you context that’s a dumper truck of plastic going into our oceans every minute.
“A huge amount of that is going to be plastic bottles. In terms of the impact the plastic is having, its entangling and choking bigger creatures, like turtles for instance, and sea birds.
“These drinks companies are responsible for a vast amount of plastic going into our oceans every year.
“They need to set targets for phasing out this single use of throwaway plastic bottles and then they need to look at increasing the amount of recyclable plastic that their use in their own bottles.”
The Marine Conservation Society carries out an annual beach clean at coastlines around Britain.
The society’s Emma Cunningham told Sky News: “The amount of plastic that we’re finding is increasing and most of the plastic that we find are single-use items, so things that have just been used once then carelessly discarded; for example, plastic bottles.
“We’ve had a big rise in the amount of bottles and caps and lids that we’ve found on our beaches so it’s a massive problem that’s just not going away.”
Gavin Partington from the British Soft Drinks Association said: “There is a serious problem with marine litter. No one doubts that. And it requires a serious solution. (SKYNEWS)