Ethics, Sustainability and Social Impact

Ethics, Sustainability and
Social Impact

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Causes and Effects of Plastic Pollution.......................................................................................3
Circular Economy and its Influence............................................................................................5
The Coca-Cola Company’s Efforts Towards Circular Economy................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Pollution is the process of introducing natural or artificial contaminants into the
environment that causes adverse effects on the environment and the lives and habitats of all
living beings. Plastic pollution is the accumulation of synthetic plastic products in the natural
environment to the extent that they start to cause major problems for the natural wildlife, their
health, habitat in addition to the health of human beings (Forrest and et. al., 2019). In the modern
age, one of the most pressing environmental issues to come out of the human dominance on
planet earth is of plastic pollution. As plastic is ever present in most of the operations conducted
by human beings, the plastic pollution in the digital age has risen immensely to the concern of
many but not most.
This report assesses the efforts of business organisation ‘The Coca-Cola Company’, a
signatory to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, June 2019, in their quest to
minimise plastic pollution through their operations. The Coca-Cola Company is an American
producer, marketer and retailer of non-alcoholic beverages and was founded in 1892. In its 128
years of operating in the beverage industries successfully, The Coca-Cola Company has had
ample opportunities to grow and expand its business operations to global markets. Currently, The
Coca-Cola Company has become the largest producer of plastic wastes in the entire world,
owing to their operations spanning the entire globe.
Main Body
Causes and Effects of Plastic Pollution
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing concerns of the 21st century due to
its immense rise and the inability of human beings to control their production and consumption
of plastic waste. Plastic pollution has affected all natural habitats of wildlife in the world and has
even made its effects known to habitats where humans don’t even live, from deep sea habitats
where the immense pressures make it impossible for humans to reach, to high altitude habitats
where even the atmosphere is too thin for humans to live (Villarrubia-Gómez, Cornell and
Fabres, 2018). This is a massive blunder from the so called intelligent human beings and will
have immensely negative effects on the environment and wildlife as plastic products are non-

biodegradable and are able to persist in the environment for thousands of years. There are
multiple reasons as to why plastic pollution in the environment has become so prevalent all
around the globe such as:
Versatility: As plastic was created by human beings, it was designed to be immensely versatile in
its applications. Plastic materials can be moulded into various shapes, sizes and forms and this
versatility that plastic provides has become the major cause of growing plastic pollution in the
entire world (Xanthos and Walker, 2017). Nowadays plastic products have made their way into
almost every consumer product and industry’s operations due to their versatility. From plastic
bottles to plastic containers to plastic bags to almost everything, plastic has made its way into
most human operations owing to their versatility.
Economic Feasibility: Plastic is also significantly cheaper than all of its current alternatives in
the market and is significantly easy to produce. This is the second biggest reason why businesses
all around the globe have incorporated plastic into their operations, causing plastic pollution to
rise to alarming rates everywhere. As plastic is more economically feasible for business
organisation’s operations and helps their objective of generating increased profits, irrespective of
the damage or cost to the environment, the average consumer has little choice but to purchase
these goods and products that are packaged in plastic containers and bags.
Non-Biodegradable: Plastic was designed and created by human being to last. Though this was a
revolutionary idea in the 20th century, in the 21st century the world now understands what this
design entails for the environment and the wildlife around as. As plastic is a synthetic product
created in laboratory and not found in any natural environment, there are no natural bacteria or
natural biological processes than can break down its polymer structure (Haward, 2018). This
means that all the plastic wastes in the environment can last for thousands of years in the
environment and if consumed by wildlife cannot be broken down by their digestion systems,
making them unfortunately ever present in the ecosystem.
Rise in plastic pollution in the 21st century has had immensely negative impact on the
entire world’s ecosystems, wildlife and habitats. Plastic pollution’s effects are more far reaching
than anyone imagined, some of which are as follows: