Coca-Cola and PepsiCo were sued on Wednesday over plastic pollution Los Angeles County asserts is a public nuisance that violates unfair competition and false advertising law.
Plastic is California’s primary source of land litter, according to the complaint, and it does not biodegrade naturally, only breaking down into fragments. LA County asserts that plastic Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottles are polluting the county’s land and water sources, contaminating natural resources, harming the environment and wildlife, and threatening public health. It further asserts that the companies are influencing consumers to falsely believe that purchasing Pepsi and Coca-Cola products in single-use plastic bottles is an environmentally sound choice.
One example cited in the complaint of deceptive information is both companies’ promises of a “circular economy” for plastics. Coca-Cola has allegedly claimed that its plastic bottles can be recycled and reused endlessly. In reality, says the complaint, plastic bottles can only be recycled once at most. Additionally, both companies have presented solutions they should know will not solve the problem, like chemical recycling, and have made fake promises that they would increase their use of recycled plastic by certain percentages.
These promises and deceptive marketing have led consumers to engage in “theatre,” says the complaint, “dutifully [rinsing] and [sorting] plastic products into designated recycling bins and [carting] them to curbs or trash rooms believing they are doing their part.” The complaint alleges that Pepsi and Coca-Cola know and have known that the plastic bottles they are using are not and will not be recycled at a large enough scale to offset the significant harm done.
Break Free From Plastics’ 2023 Brand Audit, cited in the complaint, found PepsiCo and Coca-Cola were the first and second highest plastic polluters, producing 2.5 million metric tons and 3.224 million metric tons of plastic each year, respectively. The companies have been ranked as the world’s top plastic polluters for six consecutive years.
According to the complaint, the percentage of plastics that were recycled actually fell between 1996 and 2018. Furthermore, there are many difficulties associated with recycling plastic bottles more than once, for example, plastic that can be recycled must be clear, colorless, and free of contaminants from labels and other substances. This means that plastic bottles are often not recycled or are “downcycled” into items of lower quality, a process that necessarily means that the plastic eventually cannot be recycled again. The complaint asserts that Pepsi and Coca-Cola knew these facts and continued to make false representations about the sustainability of their products anyway.
The complaint alleges that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have violated public nuisance law, unfair competition law, and untrue or misleading advertising law. It asks that the defendants be stopped from continuing these violations and be made to pay restitution and civil penalties.
New York brought a similar lawsuit against Pepsi in late 2023.
Additional Reading
Los Angeles County sues PepsiCo and Coca-Cola over plastic pollution, Reuters (October 31, 2024)
New York Sues Pepsi Over Plastic Pollution, Justia Legal News (November 16, 2023)
California v. PepsiCo Compaint
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