National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is calling on shareholders of The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) to support a critical governance reform at the upcoming 2026 Annual Meeting. Identified as Item 5 on page 91 of the Company’s 2026 Proxy Statement, the proposal requests an independent, objectively verifiable report evaluating the Company’s increasingly controversial plastics packaging policies. We released a full research report today that examines the claims versus the reality as it pertains to the science, economics and logistics behind its policies.
For nearly a decade, Coca-Cola’s strategic direction has been tethered to the “World Without Waste” initiative, a framework developed alongside the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF). While “circular economy” rhetoric makes for polished marketing, the operational reality has been a series of expensive, high-profile failures. In December 2024, the beverage giant quietly abandoned its pledge to reduce virgin plastic use by 3 million metric tons and pushed its remaining sustainability deadlines out to 2035. This retreat occurred the very same day that UN plastics treaty negotiations in Busan, South Korea, concluded without agreement.
The scientific record suggests Coca-Cola’s retreat is a collision with physical reality. A landmark 2024 study published in Environmental Science & Technology found that in 15 of 16 product categories, plastics actually produce 10% to 90% fewer lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than the alternatives favored by activists. For Coca-Cola, substituting PET plastic bottles with glass or aluminum would likely drive up freight costs and increase the Company’s overall carbon dioxide footprint.
The financial stakes are equally daunting. The price premium for recycled PET (rPET) over virgin material has hit as high as $350 per metric ton in European markets. Furthermore, Coca-Cola’s support for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws—which function as a hidden tax on consumers—could uplift total packaging costs by as much as 40%. With the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing greenwashing litigation against the Company to proceed, shareholders can no longer afford to ignore the gap between activist-driven aspirations and economic truth.
Read the executive summary of NLPC’s report on Coca-Cola here, and the PDF download of the full report can be found here.
