OAN Staff Abril Elfi
12:00 PM – Thursday, October 31, 2024
Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, accusing the two of deceiving the public about the environmental impact and recyclable nature of their containers, as well as of contaminating the most populated county in the United States with plastic bottles.
The two companies have competed with one another for over 100 years and are “the world’s biggest beverage companies.” They have a duopoly in the beverages sector, though they do compete with smaller companies as well.
They also claimed that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola failed to disclose significant environmental and health harms associated with plastic containers.
“The lawsuit alleges that Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have mispresented the environmental impact of plastic beverage containers, claiming that they are ‘recyclable’ despite knowing that plastics cannot be readily disposed of without associated environmental impacts,” county officials wrote in a news release.
The county stated that in addition to plastic waste, greenhouse gas emissions from the production of the bottles have negatively impacted and threatened all county residents.
“Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, collectively, own dozens of beverage brands, including Coke, Pepsi, Dasani, Smartwater, Fanta, Aquafina, Gatorade, 7-Up, Sprite, Vitamin Water, and Mountain Dew,” the county said in the release. “Given their significant share of the beverage market, the two companies have been ranked as the world’s top plastic polluters for five consecutive years, with no meaningful accountability for their plastic pollution.”
The county claims that the two major companies “engaged in a disinformation campaign,” leading consumers to believe that their single-use plastic bottles were environmentally friendly.
They also stated that by allegedly promoting the creation of a “circular economy,” Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are misleading customers into believing that recycling can offset the harm caused by single-use plastic bottles.
“However, in reality, plastic bottles can only be recycled once, if at all, making promises of a ‘circular economy’ impossible,” wrote the county.
The lawsuit also includes a request for restitution for consumers and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation.
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