Coca-Cola Alters EU Labels After Greenwashing Row

Prime Highlights

Coca-Cola is making adjustments to EU bottle labels so that it is more transparent that only the body of the bottle—label or sneezing cap—is made from 100% recycled plastic.
Following a greenwashing complaint made by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), who considered the original label misleading.

Key Fact

The new labels will have an indication clarifying that the 100% recycled position will refer only to the bottle body.
BEUC’s complaint alleged that consumers are likely being misled on the recyclability of the whole bottle.

Key Background

Coca-Cola pledged to change its European Union-wide recycling labels after a complaint was raised by BEUC, accusing the brand of greenwashing. The original labels implied that Coca-Cola bottles were “made with 100% recycled plastic,” but, as BEUC argued, the message would lead consumers to think that the entire bottle, including labels and lids, is 100% recycled. The truth is the claim only applies to the body of the bottle.

Coca-Cola then announced that it would alter the labels to include a positive notice, so that it will be easy for the customer to identify what portion of the packaging is made up of recyclable material. That is progress in additional environmental marketing disclosure, especially with increased consumer demand for corporate responsibility.

That is part of the trend for Coca-Cola in overall refining of its sustainability plan. The company has just abandoned its public pledge to have 25% of its packaging reusable by 2030 and replaced it with more flexible—and less binding—targets instead. Critics argue that the new targets are a weakening of commitments made earlier. For instance, Coca-Cola now aims to use 35–40% recycled material in major packaging by 2035, not achieve 50% by 2030 as it had earlier committed.

Additionally, the firm lowered its objective of recycling every can or bottle it markets by the year 2030. Instead, the objective is still to reclaim 70–75% of packaging it sells by the year 2035. All these changes have been met with outrage from green campaigners, who claim Coca-Cola’s shift away from reuse and more aggressive recycling targets water down the fight against plastic worldwide.

Label change also follows UN-led negotiations in South Korea that collapsed without a deal on binding cuts of plastic waste. With one of the largest plastic polluters in the world, Coca-Cola’s operations are once again subject to close regulatory and activist scrutiny.