5 companies produce 24 per cent of plastic waste: study

A new study found five companies are responsible for 24 per cent of the plastic waste in the world.

Tony Walker, an environmental studies professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, was the co-author of the study, which appeared in the journal “Science Advances.” Speaking with CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Tuesday, Walker said the main plastic polluters are Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Danone, and Altria.

“We’d long suspected who the big five players would be (and) it was confirmed with a wide dataset,” Walker said. “Our finding really was a comprehensive five-year global study. Eighty-four countries representing more than 80 per cent of the global population.”

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Last week negotiators from 175 nations convened in Ottawa to discuss a possible global treaty to cut plastic waste. Walker, who specializes in plastic pollution, said his “best wish list” would be to have the treaty be legally binding with hard targets.

“It’s very difficult to avoid plastics and plastic which are hard to recycle,” he said. “It’s been top of agenda in many of these meetings.”

Walker noted the sheer amount of plastic waste is a problem affecting every country, including Canada.

“As a G7 country Canada has been exporting plastic waste to countries outside of Canada for recycling,” he said. “We are surrounded by it.”

Walker said there is no one perfect solution to deal with plastic solution, but he said scientists have argued a cap of plastic production could be a serious step in the right direction.

“Certainly curbing and capping and reducing plastic pollution at source is a major solution, as is better and improved management,” he said.