Los Angeles County sues Pepsi and Coca-Cola over plastic bottles

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County is taking on Pepsi and Coke for their role in plastic pollution.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the province alleged that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola companies misled the public about the recyclability of their plastic bottles and downplayed the negative environmental and health impacts of disposing of plastic.

“Coke and Pepsi must stop the cheating and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems your products are causing,” LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a statement. “Los Angeles County will continue to address the serious environmental impacts caused by companies that engage in deceptive and unfair business practices.”

Coca-Cola owns brands like Dasani, Fanta, Sprite, Vitamin Water and Smartwater, while PepsiCo owns Gatorade, Aquafina, Mountain Dew and more. The two companies have been ranked as the world’s top plastic polluters for five years in a row, and Coca-Cola has been number one for six years, according to global environmental group Break Free From Plastic.

According to Break Free from Plastic, PepsiCo produces approximately 2.5 million tons of plastic annually and Coca-Cola produces approximately 3.224 million tons of plastic.

A consumer protection group and environmental organizations from the European Union filed a legal complaint against Coca-Cola, Nestle and Danone last November, accusing them of being misleading in representing packaging as 100% recycled or 100% recyclable.

The LA lawsuit alleges that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have waged “disinformation campaigns” to push consumers to buy single-use plastics in the belief that they are recyclable and less harmful to the environment.

It claimed that both companies promised to create a ‘circular economy’ for their bottles, in which plastic bottles can be recycled and reused an endless number of times, while in reality plastic bottles can only be recycled once or not at all.

The American Beverage Association, which includes PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, denied the allegations in the lawsuit about their plastic bottle recycling labels.

“The claim that our packaging is not and will not be recycled is simply not true,” the group’s spokesman William Dermody said in a statement.

Dermody said California had a 71% bottle recycling rate in 2023, one of the highest in the country, and that their bottles are “designed to be recycled and remade and can contain up to 100% recycled plastic.”

In 2022 alone, an estimated 121,324 to 179,656 tons of plastic waste leaked into the land and ocean in California, and plastic makes up seven of the top 10 litter items found on beaches, the lawsuit said.

That is a big part of the problem microplastics.

Plastic that ends up in the environment eventually breaks down into small pieces of plastic of five millimeters or less. They can affect soil and plant growth, marine life and fish, and are virtually impossible to remove from the environment, the lawsuit said.

Some Australian researchers calculated in 2019 on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund that many people consume around 5 grams of plastic from common foods and drinks every week, and that microplastics have been found in body tissues and organs. Although research remains limited overall, there is growing concern that microplastics in the body may be linked heart diseaseAlzheimer’s disease and dementia, and other problems.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the companies’ “unfair and deceptive business practices,” as well as restitution for consumers and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.

In February 2020, environmental organization Earth Island Institute filed a lawsuit in California seeking damages and an injunction against Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle USA, Procter & Gamble, and six other companies to clean up the plastic waste they would be responsible for are held.

New York State has also sued PepsiCo last November for its role in creating the plastic waste that litters the Buffalo River, which flows into Lake Erie and supplies the city of Buffalo with drinking water.