一个环保组织就塑料污染起诉可口可乐和百事可乐

The California-based environmental group, Earth Island Institute, have filed a lawsuit against 10 large companies, including Coke, Pepsi, and Nestlé, for their part in creating a plastic pollution “nuisance”, as well as spreading misinformation about the recyclability of their plastic packaging.

总部位于加州的环保组织地球岛研究所(Earth Island Institute)已对包括可口可乐(Coke)、百事可乐(Pepsi)和雀巢(Nestle)在内的10家大公司提起诉讼，理由是这些公司制造了塑料污染“公害”，并散布有关其塑料包装可回收性的错误信息。

Last Wednesday, February 26, 2020, the suit was filed in San Mateo county superior court, asking that the companies pay to rectify the damage their plastic pollution has caused to the world and refrain from marketing products as recyclable, when by and large they do not end up actually being recycled at recycling facilities, due to the sheer volume and cost, as well as sorting capabilities of local facilities.

上周三,2020年2月26日,在圣马刁县高级法院提起诉讼,要求公司支付纠正他们塑料污染所造成的危害,避免营销产品可回收利用,当最后总的来说他们不被回收的回收设施,由于庞大的体积和成本,以及当地设施的排序功能。

Katy Pallister

“This is the first of what I believe will be a wave of lawsuits seeking to hold the plastics industry accountable for the unprecedented mess in our oceans,” Josh Floum, Earth Island Institute’s board president, said in a statement.

地球岛研究所理事会主席乔希·弗洛姆在一份声明中表示:“我相信，这将是一波诉讼浪潮的第一步，要求塑料行业为我们海洋中前所未有的混乱局面承担责任。”

Around 150 million metric tonnes of plastic currently reside in the ocean, with between 8 and 20 million extra tonnes of plastic added each year to this figure, according to research estimates. At this rate, plastic is set to outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050. In the plaintiff's suit, they argue that plastic pollution has a detrimental impact on the environment and its inhabitants.

据研究估计，目前海洋中大约有1.5亿吨塑料，每年还会增加800万到2000万吨塑料。按照这个速度，到2050年海洋中的塑料垃圾将超过鱼类。在原告的诉讼中，他们认为塑料污染对环境和居民有有害的影响。

"Garbage Patches," like this image shows, are areas where pollution in the ocean congregates. NOAA

From beach cleanups conducted as part of an international audit last year, single-use plastic packaging was gathered by over 72,000 volunteers across 51 countries and categorized by brand. It was found that the majority of oceanic plastic pollution can be traced back to a handful of major companies. The lawsuit names 10 of the most abundant brands in this search: Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pepsi, Mondelēz International, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Crystal Geyser, and Danone.

去年，作为国际审计的一部分，进行了一次海滩清理工作，来自51个国家的72000多名志愿者收集了一次性塑料包装，并按品牌进行了分类。调查发现，大部分海洋塑料污染可以追溯到少数几家大公司。诉讼的名字10最丰富的品牌在这个搜索:可口可乐、百事可乐、雀巢Mondelēz国际火星,宝洁、高露洁、水晶喷泉,和达能。

“The products that we are targeting in our lawsuit are contained in plastic packaging that is designed to be used for a short period of time, sometimes just a few minutes,” Earth Island’s General Counsel Sumona Majumdar said. “And yet, this packaging pollutes our bodies from one generation to the next, and our planet for centuries.”

地球岛的总法律顾问苏莫娜·马强达尔说:“我们在诉讼中针对的产品被包装在塑料包装里，设计使用时间很短，有时只有几分钟。”“然而，这种包装污染了我们的身体一代又一代，我们的星球几个世纪。”

This is not the only charge the environmental group are bringing forward to the companies; Earth Island also believes that consumers are being misled by them. Consumers are told by these companies that their plastic is recyclable, therefore it is expected that if the item is placed in a recycling bin (or other facilities such as this), then the situation is taken care of. However, much of the time, this isn’t the case.

这并不是环保组织向这些公司提出的唯一要求;地球岛也认为消费者被他们误导了。这些公司告诉消费者，他们的塑料是可回收的，因此，如果物品被放入回收箱(或其他类似设施)，那么这种情况就会得到解决。然而，很多时候，情况并非如此。

Earth Island highlighted how the coasts and waterways in their base, California, have fallen victim to plastic pollution. Bill McDonald, Algalita Foundation/ Flickr. CC BY-NA-2.0

Previous studies have suggested that less than 10 percent of primary plastic produced is recycled, but the recent collapse of the recycling market could see this number decrease further. The suit argues that companies have continued to generate new “virgin plastic”, the production of which has increased 200-fold since 1950, due to its cheapness.

以前的研究表明，只有不到10%的初级塑料被回收，但最近回收市场的崩溃可能会进一步减少这一数字。该诉讼认为，由于价格低廉，公司继续生产新的“原始塑料”，其产量自1950年以来增加了200倍。

“The Coca-Cola Company and our other defendants churn out millions of tons of plastic packaging each year and want us to believe that it is all being recycled,” Majumdar said. “It’s a misinformation campaign, similar to those used by Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Pharma. Now is the time to hold Big Plastic similarly accountable.”

Majumdar说:“可口可乐公司和我们的其他被告每年生产数百万吨的塑料包装，希望我们相信这些都是回收的。”“这是一场错误的宣传活动，类似于大型烟草公司、大型石油公司和大型制药公司所使用的宣传活动。现在是让大型塑料企业承担同样责任的时候了。”

All of this does not mean to dissuade customers from recycling, executive director of Earth Island Institute David Phillips, told the Guardian, rather the lawsuit is about making companies take responsibility for the waste from their products.

地球岛研究所执行主任大卫·菲利普斯在接受《卫报》采访时表示，所有这些并不是要劝阻消费者不要回收垃圾，而是要让企业对其产品产生的垃圾负责。

In response to the lawsuit, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola and Pepsi, amongst others, told IFLScience: “Plastic waste is a worldwide problem that demands thoughtful solutions. America’s beverage companies are already taking action to address the issue by reducing our use of new plastic, investing to increase the collection of our bottles so they can be remade into new bottles as intended, and collaborating with legislators and third-party experts to achieve meaningful policy resolutions.”

作为对这起诉讼的回应，代表可口可乐和百事可乐等公司的美国饮料协会发言人告诉IFLScience:“塑料垃圾是一个全球性的问题，需要深思熟虑的解决方案。美国的饮料公司已经采取行动来解决这个问题，减少使用新的塑料，投资增加收集我们的瓶子，这样它们就可以按原计划重新制成新的瓶子，并与立法者和第三方专家合作，以达成有意义的政策决议。”

Mondelēz International, one of the companies being sued by Earth Island Institute, told IFLScience that they don't comment on active litigation. However, they emphasized their commitment to making 100 percent of their packaging recycle-ready by 2025, in order to reach their ultimate goal of creating zero net waste packaging.

Mondelēz国际,一个由地球岛研究所被起诉的公司,告诉IFLScience他们不积极诉讼置评。然而，他们强调，他们的承诺，准备到2025年使100%的包装回收，以达到他们的最终目标，创造零净废物包装。

A spokesperson continued: "We’re working hard to minimize and create new materials that can be recycled, provide recycling information on-pack and most importantly working with partners across industry, governments and NGOs to both incent consumer behavior and put the infrastructure in place to ensure packaging doesn’t end up in the environment."

一名发言人继续说道:“我们正在努力减少和创造可回收的新材料，提供包装上的回收信息，最重要的是与各行业、政府和非政府组织合作，激发消费者行为，并建立基础设施，确保包装不会污染环境。”

We reached out to the other companies involved in the lawsuit (Nestlé, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Crystal Geyser, and Danone), and haven't heard back by the time of publication.

我们联系了参与诉讼的其他公司(雀巢、玛氏、宝洁、高露洁棕榄、水晶间歇泉和达能)，截至发稿时还没有得到回复。