ethical marketing

  The global event organization Break Free From Plastics launched a plastic waste statistics campaign in 2019. The organization employs more than 72,000 volunteers to search for plastic products, including bottles, cups, packaging, bags, and waste, on beaches, waterways, and streets around the world. During the period, volunteers discovered 50 different types of plastic from nearly 8,000 different brands. A total of 475,000 pieces of garbage were collected, of which 11,732 belonged to The Coca-Cola Company(Nace, 2019). Coca-Cola set a global goal of achieving 25% of plastic bottle raw materials from recycled and renewable materials in 2012, but ultimately only completed 12.4%, of which the use of recycled plastic only achieved 7%, and even directly abandoned after that This goal.

On the one hand, the global plastic burden is already extremely heavy, on the other hand, Coca-Cola is blindly increasing the production and use of disposable plastic packaging, which is undoubtedly contrary to the global efforts to respond to the plastic crisis. The Coca-Cola is also making new attempts, such as coming up with a novel and effective solution, using a new cardboard technology keelclip to replace its plastic packaging in Europe. The company believes this will save 3,000 tons of plastic annually. However, it is expected that the Coca-Cola Company should make more efforts based on existing resources。

The Coca-Cola Company should attaches importance to the problem of plastic waste pollution, which is a manifestation of fulfilling corporate social responsibility. "CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with stakeholders voluntarily." (European Commission, 2002) In 1970, Milton Friedman proposed that as long as a company complies with the rules of the game, there is only one kind of social responsibility to use its resources and plan activities that increase its profits, thus forcing openness and free competition without deception or fraud. On the other hand, Kirk Russell insists that every right should be married to an obligation and that every freedom has a corresponding responsibility. Therefore, unless there is real order in the moral and social realms, there will be no real freedom.

The fulfillment of corporate social responsibility is in line with the company's interests, can enhance the company's competitiveness, drive the development of new markets, and create growth opportunities. On the other hand, corporate social responsibility is in the interest of the whole society. European commission mentioned in 2011 that to maximize shared value, companies are encouraged to adopt a long-term corporate social responsibility strategy。 This contributes to the well-being of society and higher-achieving products, services, and business models of higher quality and greater productivity. 

The Coca-Cola Company's emphasis on plastic waste helps to implement sustainable development。 The Brundtland Report (1987) defined it as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” 

Only by incorporating sustainable development into the core strategy of enterprise development can it be beneficial to the growth of the enterprise. Sustainable Development is the process to reach the goal of sustainability, which can be characterized by four sustainability conditions (Robèrt et al., 2002). In terms of solving environmental problems, enterprises should bear more and more responsibilities and obligations. This is the requirement of the whole society for enterprises, and it is also an inevitable trend for enterprises to seek sustainable development. 

The Coca-Cola needs to consider both social and environmental benefits in the development process so that economic and environmental benefits can be developed in harmony. The environmental pollution problems caused by plastic waste need the Coca-Cola Company to reflect on and summarize its socio-economic behaviors and explore new development strategies. With the increasing demand and choice of consumers for green products, in order to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises themselves, enterprises need to choose a sustainable and long-term development path.

  In the next survey, we plan to conduct 20 focus groups with 10 participants to study and discuss the problem of plastic waste pollution. We will also conduct 3,000 online questionnaires。We will also collect relevant data using the method of netnography. We will mainly target consumers, understand their attitudes and opinions on the problem of plastic waste pollution, and collect feasible suggestions.

Reference

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS. (2011). .

Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. The New York Times Magazine.

Robèrt, K., Schmidt-Bleek, B., Aloisi de Larderel, J., Basile, G., Jansen, J., Kuehr, R., Price Thomas, P., Suzuki, M., Hawken, P. and Wackernagel, M. (2002). Strategic sustainable development — selection, design and synergies of applied tools. Journal of Cleaner Production, 10(3), pp.197-214.

WCED (1987): Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report), World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Nace, T. (2019). Coca-Cola Named The World’s Most Polluting Brand in Plastic Waste Audit. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/10/29/coca-cola-named-the-worlds-most-polluting-brand-in-plastic-waste-audit/#439a0d7174e0 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2020].

SeltenrichNew link in the food chain? Marine plastic pollution and seafood safety

Environ. Health Perspect., 123 (2015), pp. 34-41