Five years after concerns were raised in Samoa over Coca-Cola’s move from refillable glass bottles to single-use plastic packaging, Samoan and Pacific advocates took their message to the company’s largest bottler in London.
Samoan and Pacific representatives travelled to London as part of the “Keep Plastic out of the Pacific” campaign. They gathered outside Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ (CCEP) annual general meeting on May 28, calling on Coca-Cola to bring back reusable packaging and reduce the use of single-use plastics.
The delegation included representatives from the London School of Hula and ‘Ori, SolFa Music Samoa, Mana Arts Co, MP Studio Samoa, Samoa Conservation Society, Samoa Recycling & Waste Management Association, Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, and the global Break Free From Plastic movement.
The campaign, led by ocean conservation group Oceana, argues that plastic waste continues to place pressure on Pacific communities where recycling infrastructure remains limited.
The issue was first raised in Samoa in 2021 when the President of the Samoa Conservation Society at the time, James Atherton, launched a petition calling on Coca-Cola to reconsider its decision to replace refillable glass bottles with plastic bottles.
