Plastic pollution and packaging: Corporate commitments and actions from the food and beverage sector

Plastic pollution is a pervasive and escalating global environmental problem, named among the most serious environmental issues globally, after climate change. A large percentage of the global plastic waste leakage is estimated to come from Asia, and most of this is from food and drink packaging. As a major user of single-use packaging, the food and beverage sector plays an important role in addressing plastic pollution, yet investigation of the uptake and transition to sustainable packaging by this industry sector remains limited. To contribute to filling this gap, a systematic review of 68 corporate sustainability reports was conducted to examine how major multinational companies in the food and beverage sector are addressing plastic pollution. This study focuses on how these companies address plastic pollution and packaging in their corporate sustainability reports, what sustainable packaging strategies they present, and how the companies address producer responsibility. The results show that the transition to sustainable packaging in the food and beverage sector is slow and inconsistent. Most corporate sustainability reports fail to address plastic pollution. There is a tendency for companies to report on collection and recycling, rather than sustainable packaging solutions aimed at systemic change. Producer responsibility concerning packaging is growing, however, most companies are doing very little to reduce plastic waste especially in regions lacking waste management infrastructure, such as those in emerging economies. •Transition to sustainable packaging in the F&B sector is slow and inconsistent.•Recycling is still the dominant narrative in how companies address packaging waste.•There is little consideration of markets lacking waste management infrastructure.•Systemic change and radical innovation are needed to boost producer responsibility.•Companies report more readily on commitments rather than concrete actions.•Post-consumer initiatives are more prevalent than solutions-at-the-source.