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Companies claiming to use eco-friendly packaging, including Coca-Cola and Tesco, are greenwashing, according to a new report. The Changing Markets Foundation says that companies claim to be intercepting and using “ocean-bound” or “recyclable” plastic to make customers think they are tracking the plastic Pollution crisis.

Source: Our Changing Climate/Youtube

The companies’ claims are made with little proof about how the products are helping the plastic Pollution issue. The report says that this is done to hide the real impact of plastic Pollution from consumers.

George Harding-Rolls, campaign manager at Changing Markets Foundations, said, “Our latest investigation exposes a litany of misleading claims from household names consumers should be able to trust. This is just the tip of the iceberg and it is of crucial importance that regulators take this issue seriously.”

“The industry is happy to gloat its green credentials with little substance on the one hand, while continuing to perpetuate the plastic crisis on the other. We are calling out greenwashing so the world can see that voluntary action has led to a market saturated with false claims.”

The report gives numerous examples of how big companies take shortcuts and lie to consumers about their efforts to help the environment.

Coca-Cola has spent millions to promote an innovation that says its bottles are 25 percent marine plastic. Of course, the company does not mention that they are the world’s biggest plastic polluter.

Source: Our Changing Climate/Youtube

Kim Kardashian’s clothing company, Skins, has compostable packaging that says “I am not plastic” but when looking at the small print, it says the product is plastic-type 4 or LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene).

Mercadona, a supermarket in Spain, rebranded its cutlery as “reusable” instead of providing alternatives after the EU banned plastic cutlery.

Tesco, a multinational grocery store, has claimed that its flexible new plastic packaging is improved and recyclable. However, for it to be recyclable, consumers need to take the packaging back to larger stores, and even then, it is extremely unlikely that it would be recycled. The report says that it most likely is exported, incinerated, or sent to a landfill.

These companies cannot get away with lying to the public and consumers about their products. Study after study has found that plastic is bad for your health and does nothing but harm the environment and contribute to plastic Pollution. Check out Greenwash.com to see how companies are straight-up lying to consumers’ faces.

Globally, we produce 300 million tons of plastic every year, 78 percent of which is NOT reclaimed or recycled. Around  8.8 million tons of plastic get dumped into the oceans every year! 700 marine animals are faced with extinction due to the threat that plastic poses to them in the form of entanglement, Pollution, and ingestion. 50 percent of sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs. By 2050, 99 percent of all seabird species will have ingested plastic waste. According to a study by the World Economic Forum, there will be one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and if things go on business as usual, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.

Read more about how companies like Facebook, Tupperware, Google, Dove,  Budweiser, Carlsberg, and FIJI Water are working towards reducing plastic Pollution. Places around the world like Tel Aviv, California, Baltimore, Scotland, and many more are banning various single-use plastics, and others are coming up with creative ways to recycle and use plastic waste.

There are products you may be using or habits you may have that contribute to plastic Pollution. Learn more about how the use of Teabags, Cotton Swabs, Laundry, Contact Lenses, Glitter, and Sheet Masks pollute our oceans so you can make more informed decisions going forward. There are also numerous simple actions and switches that can help cut plastic out of our lives including, making your own cosmetics, shampoo, toothpaste, soap, household cleaners, using mason jars, reusable bags/bottles/straws, and avoiding microbeads!

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