Bill Nye and The Coca-Cola Company are working on a project.
Nye, best known for his TV show, Bill Nye the Science Guy, appears in a Coca-Cola stop-motion video posted to YouTube Tuesday. Nye narrated an animated doll of himself with a bottle for a head and a Coca-Cola label.
We can use plastic again and again if we can recover and recycle it. Nye presented a Coca-Cola bottle in the other hand as he popped off his plastic-bottle head.
When we use recycled material, we reduce our carbon footprint. What is not to love? The good people at The Coca-Cola Company are trying to find a solution to the plastic waste problem. They know they have a responsibility to help solve this issue and their goal is to create a world without waste.
Coca-Cola runs a cutesy animation of the process of recycling a bottle.
Recycling doesn't create a world without waste. Plastic bottles can only be recycled a few times before going to the landfill. They can only be turned into new products.
Recycling can reduce the amount of new plastic produced, but it doesn't reduce the amount of carbon emissions on a large scale. Experts say that recycled plastic is more expensive and less quality than new plastic.
Coca-Cola is one of the worst offenders when it comes to plastic pollution. The company produces 3 million metric tons of plastic packaging each year. It is the top plastic producer out of 130 businesses that report their numbers to the foundation. Coca-Cola has been ranked the world's top plastic polluter for four years in a row.
The company will use at least 50% recycled material in its packaging by the year 2030.
Coca-Cola didn't respond to the request for comment. Nye's representatives did not reply immediately.
According to a 2020 study by the UN Environment Programme, less than 10% of the 7 billion metric tons of plastic waste has ever been recycled.
Even when recycling happens, it doesn't prevent plastic from becoming garbage. Coca-Cola bottles are made from a type of plastic that can be recycled more times than other types of plastic. Some companies claim that they can recycle infinitely. Only 29% of bottles and jars were recycled last year.
Each round of recycling degrades the quality of most plastics, so bottles are often downcycled into fibers or wood replacements.
According to an investigation by NPR and PBS, the market for recycled plastic is limited because it is more expensive to make new plastic from oil or gas.
The investigation found that plastic-making companies spent millions of dollars to make the practice popular. The companies own scientists and they told them that recycling wouldn't work on a large scale.
Making recycling work was a way to keep their products in the market.
The quantity of plastic produced increased tenfold by 2015. According to the World Economic Forum, plastic production is expected to triple by 2050.
Even if every plastic product was recycled, it wouldn't stop the pollution of our environment and bodies. Research shows that plastic products we use every day are not safe.
Microplastics have been found in food, water, poop, and lungs.
A study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials found that recycled bottles may have more chemicals in them than fresh plastic bottles.
According to an analysis, the average American ingests about 50,000 microplastic particles each year and inhales about the same amount. The average person takes a credit card's worth of plastic each week according to a study.
The health consequences of that exposure are not fully understood. There is research linking common chemicals in plastics to increased risk of cancer, issues with fertility and development, and hormone disruption. Microplastics in the human gut could cause harmful inflammation and start processes associated with cancer, according to a study. The particles altered the function of human lung cells.
Coca-Cola will be part of the problem if it keeps using bottles made of plastic.
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