Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) Sued for Plastic Waste Piling Up in Paradise

Faizan Farooque

Wed, May 14, 2025, 3:48 PM 1 min read

The U.S. Virgin Islands are fed up. In a caller lawsuit, they accidental Coca-Cola (KO, Financials) and PepsiCo (PEP, Financials) person misled radical for yearspromising their integrative bottles are recyclable erstwhile astir extremity up arsenic trash choking land landfills and washing onto beaches.

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Island officials accidental it's not conscionable frustratingit's unsustainable. Tourists travel for cleanable shores, but what they're seeing is plastic. And it's mostly from Coke and Pepsi products.

The suit highlights a stark contrast: successful 2019, the companies spent $4.24 cardinal connected ads but lone $11 cardinal connected existent cleanup. The message, according to the suit, was each astir brandingnot responsibility.

This isn't the archetypal complaint. Los Angeles took the soda giants to tribunal past year, too, accusing them of spreading mendacious anticipation astir plastic. That lawsuit is inactive successful play, but land leaders accidental their concern can't wait.

Patrick Boyle, from the Center for International Environmental Law, summed it up: On an island, there's obscurity for integrative to go. It conscionable stayson land, successful water, successful people's lives.

The Virgin Islands privation cleanup costs covered and privation the companies to halt claiming what isn't true. More than money, they're asking for honestyand a alteration successful however these planetary brands dainty the places their products reach.

This nonfiction archetypal appeared connected GuruFocus.