Developing countries are being overwhelmed by the amount of plastic waste (Picture: Getty/Tearfund)

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Unilever have been accused of flooding developing countries with plastics linked to the deaths of up to one million people a year.

International development agency Tearfund says such nations in Africa and Asia do not have the infrastructure to properly dispose of single-use plastics.

Western countries already ‘export’ rubbish to developing countries and the UK alone dispatches around 650,000 tonnes of waste abroad each year.

Tearfund senior policy advisor Joanne Green said: ‘That is indicative that something is seriously wrong. And yet we are sending it to countries who are already struggling.’


Plastic waste is burnt, which is leading to health problems among locals (Picture: Getty)

Coca-Cola – which sells 500 brands of drinks worldwide – used three million tonnes of plastic packages last year.



Nestle creates 1.7million tonnes while Unilever is at 610,000. PepsiCo has not yet revealed its figures to Metro.co.uk.

Tearfund recently issued a ground-breaking report saying that between 400,000 and one million people die from plastic waste problems each year in developing countries.

Discarded drink bottles and sachets help create a breeding ground for disease-carrying insects that spread malaria, dengue and typhoid fever.

Rats scurrying around waste grounds – where children play – also spread rabies and the plague.

Rubbish is often burnt on the streets, leading to deaths from the resulting black carbon, mercury and dioxins that are released into the air.

That which is not burnt ends up in the water system, blocking drains and causing floods.

Children will play among the plastic, strewn in their communities (Picture: Getty)

Speaking of the four multinational companies, Tearfund spokesperson Dr Ruth Valerio said: ‘They sell billions of products in single-use plastic packaging in poorer countries where waste isn’t collected, in the full knowledge that people will have no choice but to burn it, discard it in waterways or live among it.

‘The CEOs running these multinationals can no longer ignore the human cost of single-use plastic – fundamental changes to business models are urgently required.’

Local activist Ulan Garba Matta told Metro.co.uk that the problem in her hometown of Jos, Nigeria, had reached epidemic proportions.

She said: ‘Everywhere you look is plastic.

‘Children are playing in it, animals are scavenging in it. Our gutters are overflowing with waste and the smell is appalling.

‘There is one bin for every 100 households and so most of the plastic waste is burnt.

‘People burn at night as they think they are being considerate to their neighbours. But people wake up choking as fumes enter the homes through the windows.

‘We can see the effect on people’s health because when they cough, black soot comes out of their lungs.’

Rubbish is often burnt on the streets, leading to deaths from the resulting black carbon, mercury and dioxins that are released into the air (Picture: Getty)

Ulan said that drinks from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo would come in glass bottles until around the turn of the century and were taken back to the store and reused.

But now, she said, firms are increasingly using plastic bottles and employing ‘clever’ marketing techniques to promote them.



The campaigner added that plastic sachets of goods, such as Nestle’s coffee or Unilever’s washing powder, are priced cheaper than an equivalent product in a reusable tin.

She continued: ‘There is a psychology around plastics and here in Nigeria it is seen as a status symbol.

‘We are a class-based society where having status is something that is valued.

‘On top of that plastic sachets work out cheaper.

‘Right now, we need immediate solutions. We need to get through to these companies that they are creating waste that we don’t have the capacity to deal with.’

The streets of Jos, Nigeria, are littered with waste (Picture: Tearfund)

It is estimated that a million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, the vast majority of it is bottled water.

Tearfund wants a full report on the number of single-use plastic units from the big firms by next year.

They say that, for each item sold, one plastic item should be recycled by 2022.

The group has also called on the British government to make a tenfold increase in the amount of aid spent dealing with plastic waste.

Currently, just 0.3% of the approximately £14 billion aid budget goes on waste management.

Tearfund wants donor nations worldwide to increase that to 3%, which would help the two billion people across the globe whose rubbish is not collected.

The organisation also insists there is an opportunity for green industries to emerge in the developing world.

It says the big firms could work with designated ‘waste pickers’ who could sort the discarded bottles and sachets for a living wage.


In turn, local recycling schemes could be implemented to deal with the waste that has been collected.

Four companies have been named as responsible for a huge amount of plastic pollution across developing countries (Picture: Tearfund)

A Coca-Coca spokesperson said they recognised they had a ‘responsibility to help solve’ the waste problem, adding the aim was to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one sold by 2030.

Unilever also said they took ‘the issue of plastic waste very seriously’ and were committed to ‘reducing our plastic footprint.’

Both Nestle and PepsiCo said they planned to make all their packaging recyclable or biodegradable by 2025.

The Department for International Development said it had earlier this year announced a doubling of UK aid to recycling projects in developing countries.