Scientists analysed 1,576 brand-audit events organised by the Break Free From Plastic movement between 2018 and 2022, in which volunteers in 84 countries recorded the brand on every piece of litter they collected.
Just 56 companies accounted for more than half of all branded plastic pollution. Coca-Cola alone was responsible for 11%, followed by PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%) and Altria (2%). Half of all items were unbranded. The researchers also found that every 1% increase in a company's plastic production was matched by about a 1% increase in its share of pollution.
This is the strongest evidence yet that pollution scales directly with production, which supports policies targeting the amount of plastic made rather than only how it is disposed of.
Brand audits capture what volunteers find on beaches and streets, so the data is skewed towards packaging and towards places where audits happened.