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Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Cut Ties with Plastics Association

Beverage giants exit the Plastics Industry Association after facing pressure from Greenpeace, which denounces the association’s advocacy against plastic bag bans.

Succumbing to pressure from a number of environmental groups, primary among them Greenpeace USA, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo quietly severed their ties with the Plastics Industry Assn. (PLASTICS) in July. In a press release issued by Greenpeace, the group cheered the beverage companies’ exit from the association, adding that earlier in the year it had “highlighted the role that the plastics industry and front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have played in pushing preemption bills mean to ‘ban plastic bans’ and undermine statewide progress on plastic pollution.”

“Companies understand that they cannot publicly say they want to end plastic pollution, while financially supporting an association that lobbies for our continued reliance on throwaway plastics,” said Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar in the release. “This is a victory for every person that spoke up and asked Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to put their money where their mouths are and tell the Plastics Industry Association to stop preventing plastic waste reduction.”

Despite Greenpeace’s assertion that PLASTICS uses ALEC as a “front group” to push state legislators to prohibit plastic bans across the country, an article in May 2019 from The Center for Public Integrity disputes that claim. It reads, “The Plastics Industry Association said it left ALEC in 2017 and was never involved in the model policy process, which ALEC says is legislator-driven.”

Information from the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which advocates against the ban of plastic bags, highlights the detrimental nature of legislation driven by emotions, rather than fact. According to APBA, “Conventional plastics have the least environmental impact compared with other bags, requiring 70-percent less energy and 96-percent less water to make than paper bags.”

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