Los Angeles County has announced a lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc. and the Coca-Cola Co., accusing them of misleading the public about the effectiveness of recycling their plastic bottles. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are the leading soda companies, seeing billions in yearly revenue. Being the top soda companies means they must uphold the responsibility of dealing with their issues of plastic waste.
These corporations are home to some of the biggest beverage brands in the world, including Dasani Water, Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Fanta and Sprite.
The lawsuit has exposed the companies’ misrepresentation of the environmental impact of their plastic bottles. According to The Los Angeles Times, PepsiCo knew “that plastics cannot be readily disposed of without associated environmental impacts.”
LA County brought forth this lawsuit to combat plastic pollution problems. “Current methods of recycling are incapable of eliminating environmental impacts,” LA County Board of Supervisors said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times.
LA County highlighted false claims from PepsiCo claiming a “circular economy” system for the plastic created by the company. They also made false pledges to eliminate the use of newly manufactured plastic material.
The lawsuit shows that plastic accounts for most of the terrestrial litter in California, with seven out of the 10 most common products left on California beaches being plastic. In 2021 alone, 600 billion plastic water bottles were manufactured, resulting in 35 million tons of waste.
Clearly, something must be done to eliminate the waste.
The lawsuit aims to get a court order to stop their unfair and deceptive business practices. Furthermore, they seek consumer restitution and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.
While both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have not directly responded, appropriate measures must be instituted to deal with their harm to the environment.
The American Beverage Association, which hosts both companies as members, responded by refuting the claim that their packaging is not recycled.
“California has one of the highest bottle recycling rates in the country — 71% in 2023,” William Dermody, the vice president of media and public affairs at ABA, said to The Hill. “Our bottles are designed to be recycled and remade and can include up to 100% recycled plastic.”
Regardless of the response to the claims or whether PepsiCo’s bottles can be recycled and remade, according to The LA Times, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola consistently ranked as the world’s top plastic polluters.
This is not the first time PepsiCo has been sued for plastic waste. In 2023, New York State sued PepsiCo because its plastic waste littered the Buffalo River. The judge dismissed the case, stating that the companies should not be blamed for the actions of a third party or the people who litter plastic.
While consumers must be responsible when disposing of their single-use plastic, large corporations must be responsible for aiding the waste their products create. An effective recycling process is necessary to avoid tons of plastic ending up in landfills.
Big corporations have been at the root of many environmental issues and lawsuits like these are vital in getting them to play their part in the solutions for the issues they cause. Large corporations and the consumption of single-use plastic have exonerated issues like microplastics.
Microplastics are plastics that leak into the environment in minuscule pieces, usually 5 millimeters or less. Because of their small size, they are nearly impossible to remove from the environment and affect plant growth and marine life.
Microplastics have been linked to diseases in both humans and animals as well.
Corporations such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola must take responsibility for their plastic waste and their harm to the environment. By tackling issues of large consumption of single-use plastic and transparency of large corporations, the health of the environment and humans can improve.
