A great deal of controversy lies ahead for these two drinking giants. The environmental association Agir pour l'environnement has actually found
unwanted microplastics in Coca-Cola and Schweppes bottles.
Two beverage giants in turmoil. From the bottom of the sea to the top of the Himalayas, microplastics are present everywhere and even in certain juices, noted Thursday the association Agir pour l'Environnement, which carried out the test on bottles of Coca-Cola and Schweppes and appeals to health agencies. The general director of this environmental protection association, Stéphen Kerckhove, believes that Coca-Cola consumers “need to be informed about the molecular instability of the plastic bottle”, in a press release accompanying the publication of the investigation on Thursday.
Two laboratories studied samples from one liter bottles of Coca-Cola Original and 1.5 liter Schweppes Indian Tonic after one, ten, then twenty openings, as close as possible to normal use. Thanks to infrared analysis, observations of microplastics – plastic particles smaller than 5 mm – reveal the presence of six different polymers, a “surprising” finding for the association which indicates that “manufacturers declare only 2 polymers in contact with the drink: PE (polyethylene, Editor's note) for the cap and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) for the bottle”, we read in the report.
Coca-Cola is silent
For Coca-Cola (46 microparticles per liter after about twenty openings) as for Schweppes (62 per liter), the more the bottle is opened, the more microparticles the soda has, Agir pour l'Environnement thus proposing the hypothesis “responsibility for the degradation of the cap at the origin of the identified microplastics”. The same observation for plastic nanoparticles, whose average size increases as they are opened and closed.
Even “less well counted” because at 1,000 times smaller than a microparticle, their small size makes them more easily assimilated by living organisms, posing “a much greater health risk,” according to the survey. Schweppes told Le Parisien on Wednesday that all its packaging meets “the strict quality requirements for food quality set by French and European health authorities” and that microplastics, “if found to be present”, “are not intentionally incorporated into the packaging our. . Contacted by AFP, Coca-Cola has not yet provided a response.