Dive Brief:
- The Coca-Cola Company has committed to revising labeling practices for some of its products following a greenwashing complaint made by the European Consumer Organization.
- The beverage giant will now put a disclaimer on its plastic bottles that clarifies that only the body of the bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic, and the recycling claim does not apply to the label and cap, according to an update published by the European Commission last week.
- The changes come after the bloc’s consumer organization, BEUC, along with other member organizations from 13 countries, complained about misleading marketing claims made by major bottle manufacturers about the recyclability of their products. The complaint, made to EU authorities in November 2023, named Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestlé.
Dive Insight:
Coca-Cola said it would also refrain from using green imagery such as a closed recycling loop on its bottles — a logo BEUC had flagged as misleading in its original complaint as such images promoted “the false idea of environmental neutrality.”
The soft drink manufacturer said it would encourage consumers to responsibly dispose of used products’ packaging, especially those components that can be recycled, but said it would edit the call to action on its labels to “Recycle me” and drop the word “again.”
Despite committing to make these changes, the company noted in a May 6 update that “these commitments do not amount to an admission that [The Coca-Cola Company] has infringed the law.” The 2023 greenwashing complaint submitted by the consumer groups had alleged that the recycling claims made by the three bottling companies did not comply with the EU rules on unfair commercial practices.
The BEUC said Coca-Cola was the first company to volunteer to change its recycling claims and labels since the original complaint was filed.
“It is good news that Coca-Cola has heeded consumers’ call and commits to clarify that its ‘100%’ recycling claims only apply to parts of the bottle,” BEUC Director General Agustín Reyna said in a May 6 release. “Affirming that a bottle is 100% recycled or recyclable is outright misleading and should stop, just as green imagery [that gives] the wrong impression that plastic drink bottles have zero impact on the environment.”
Reyna added that the consumer companies “expect authorities to monitor if Coca-Cola turns their words into deeds and to take strong measures if this is not the case.”
