Coca-Cola Co. is teaming up with a Dutch nonprofit to clean up the world’s oceans.
The beverage company and The Ocean Cleanup will intercept plastic debris from rivers before it reaches the ocean, Coke said on its website.
"The partnership, which brings together Coca-Cola’s scale and global network with The Ocean Cleanup’s technology and data-driven solutions, will implement cleanup systems, including the Dutch nonprofit’s solar-powered Interceptor, in 15 rivers by the end of 2022,” the company said.
Two of the Interceptors have already been installed on rivers in the Dominican Republic and Can Tho, Vietnam, Coke said.
“These initial deployments lay the groundwork for the organization’s goal to expand the project over the next five years,” the company said.
Coke is the first company to join the effort, Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, said in a statement.
“The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to rid the oceans of plastic,” Slat said. “With 1,000 rivers emitting nearly 80% of river-carried plastic into oceans, this massive problem grows by the day, which is why we are always looking to accelerate our progress. Among the waste we collect with our cleanup systems, we find many plastic bottles, including Coca-Cola packaging, so I applaud them for being the first in the industry to join our mission.”
Coke will bring in other partners from government, community and business, the company said.
“In each market, we will bring system coalitions and networks to the table to make an even greater impact,” said Ben Jordan, senior director of Environmental Policy at Coke.
The Interceptor was introduced in 2019 and is the first scalable solution to collect plastic from rivers, Coke said.
“Waste flowing with the river current is guided by a barrier toward the opening of the Interceptor,” Coke said. “Thanks to the vessel’s catamaran design, the water flow path is optimized to pass through the system, carrying plastic with the current onto a conveyor belt and delivering the waste to a shuttle that that automatically distributes it across six dumpsters before returning to shore for recycling.”