The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of soft-drink producer Coca-Cola Group, has granted $15 million to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to scale up plastic waste management initiatives in Asia.
Asia accounts for around 80% of all global plastic waste emitted into oceans, with sixteen of the top twenty polluting rivers in the world located in the region.
Plastic waste imports from the West, increasing demand for single-use plastics, and gaps in waste management infrastructure have contributed to a rising volume of plastic waste.
Coca-Cola, the world’s largest plastic polluter, is hoping to help address these challenges by funding UNDP plastic waste management initiatives in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
The three-year programme was launched in India last week. It will help improve plastic waste management, promote recycling, reduce plastic leakage into the environment, foster country-based solutions, and facilitate regional collaboration.
By adopting and disseminating best practices across the region, the programme aims to inspire policy changes and community-level actions to reduce and help to eliminate disposable plastic and improve the livelihoods of waste workers.
While expanding successful initiatives, the programme will focus on developing innovative business models for waste collection and recycling, offering technical advice on environmental best practices and tapping into the latest technology to improve collection and recycling, to reduce plastic leakage.
"Tackling plastic waste isn't just about cleaning up – it's also about building a smarter development model,” Christophe Bahuet, UNDP deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific. “Across Asia, countries are combating the problem by embracing the circular economy. Through our Zero Waste and Plastics initiatives, we are helping them craft policies, attract investments, and reduce the consumption of single-use plastics,” he added.
The Coca-Cola Company has launched various initiatives to reduce its environmental footprint, including increasing its use of post-consumer recycled content by 17% compared to a 2019 baseline. It has also introduced the ‘World Without Waste’ initiative with the aim of designing more sustainable packaging and to collect and recycle the equivalent of a can or bottle for each one it sells by 2030.
Nonetheless, the company has increased its use of virgin plastic by 6% between 2019 and 2023. It has also discontinued its reusable packaging goals.