Olympic, Paralympic Games will serve beverages in reusable packaging

More than 100 sports organizations and athletes from around the world, including Olympians and world champions, have called on beverage companies Coca-Cola, Pepsi and bottler Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) to fight plastic pollution by increasing their use of reusable packaging.  

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the largest sporting event to serve beverages in reusable packaging, potentially replacing millions of single-use plastic cups. In a letter led by organizations Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana and EcoAthletes, signatories expressed concern for the growing plastic pollution crisis and urged the soft drink companies to use Paris 2024 as a launchpad for introducing more reuse at future Olympic Games and other sporting events. The 113 signatories to the letter include 102 athletes and 11 organizations, representing 43 sports and 30 countries. 

Re-uz, a France-based reusable container manufacturer, will be the exclusive manufacturer and supplier of the reusable cups during this year's Olympic Games, estimating it will supply 20 million cups. 

More than 50 Olympians, Paralympians, world champions and world record holders signed the letter, including 22 athletes who will be competing at the Paris 2024 Games. The list of signatories includes 39-time freediving world record holder from Italy, Alessia Zecchini; two-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer for Team USA Zach Apple; and the 50-year-old skateboarder bound for Paris 2024 representing Team Great Britain, Andy Macdonald. 

“I’ve competed in events around the world, and everywhere I sail, I find single-use plastics polluting our waters and shorelines,” Team USA Olympic sailor Lara Dallman-Weiss says. “One thing is clear, more needs to be done to stop the plastics crisis.” 

The organizations and athletes stress that recycling alone will not solve the plastic pollution crisis and believe prioritizing the reduction of plastic production and transitioning to reuse systems is necessary. The letter refers to research by Oceana, which found that just a 10 percentage point increase in reusable beverage packaging globally by 2030 can eliminate the need for more than 1 trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups. The research says this shift can prevent up to 153 billion containers from entering the world’s waterways and oceans.  

“In sports, the scoreboard doesn’t lie,” EcoAthletes CEO and founder Lew Blaustein says. “When it comes to plastic pollution and its many public health and climate impacts, humanity is behind and in dire need of a comeback. Recycling won’t get us there, not even close. The only way we can get to where we need to go on plastic pollution is a systemic commitment to exponentially grow reuse and a dramatic draw down of single use.”  

For the past six years, The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo have been found to be amongst the top global plastic polluters, according to annual brand audit data collected by the Break Free From Plastic movement. 

The letter asks Coca-Cola and Pepsi to continue reuse efforts after the Olympics by committing to: 

• making reuse an option for all customers globally and dramatically increasing reusable packaging by 2030;
• ensuring future Olympics and other major sporting events rely on reusable packaging rather than single use; and
• advocating for the inclusion of legally binding targets and other mechanisms to increase reusable packaging in national legislation and in the United Nations plastic treaty. 

“Escalating plastic pollution poses a massive threat to the oceans and our health,” Director of Sailors for the Sea Shelley Brown says. “Plastics are everywhere, from floating on the surface of the ocean, to sitting at the deepest point of the ocean floor, to the air we breathe and the water we drink. We must reduce the amount of single-use plastic being produced. The answer is simple, we need more reuse and less single use.”