Most of the plastic bottles and caps that pollute the Pacific coasts of Latin American countries are of local origin, and are mainly produced by the multinational companies The Coca-Cola Company, Aje Group and PepsiCo. The countries most affected by these pollutants are those in Central America, probably due to high consumption of beverages in plastic containers, poor waste management and transport by ocean currents. On the island coasts, bottles of Asian origin are more abundant, probably dumped from ships and transported by currents.
These are some revealing findings of the first regional study to track plastic bottles (and caps) on beaches and coastal cities in 10 Latin American countries. Along more than 12,000 kilometres of Pacific coastline from Mexico to Chile - including islands such as Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the Galápagos and Robinson Crusoe - the study sampled a total of 92 mainland beaches, 15 island beaches and 38 human settlements.
The paper, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production , involves researchers Miquel Canals and Ostin Garcés-Ordóñez, from the Consolidated Research Group in Marine Geosciences of the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona, who are also director and member, respectively, of the UB Chair on Sustainable Blue Economy, sponsored by the environmental consultancy Tecnoambiente.
The study, which covered Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, relied heavily on citizen science, thanks to the involvement and collaboration of 1,000 volunteers and 200 local leaders from 74 social organizations.
Faced with the problem of plastic pollution, the study warns of the urgent need to strengthen local waste management and to implement regional actions to reduce the environmental impact of these products. Given that the most consumed products are single-serve and single-use bottles, it is recommended that the production of returnable and reusable packaging be encouraged by the companies that produce them.
Bottles carrying information
Plastic pollution is a problem that affects the entire planet. On the coasts, plastic bottles and caps are a major component of accumulated litter and it is therefore essential to identify where they come from in order to improve the management of this type of waste and prevent its environmental impacts.
Between 2023 and 2024, citizens and other participants collaborated with scientists to collect samples of plastic beverage containers and their caps as part of the most ambitious study to date on Latin America's Pacific coast to determine the abundance, source and characteristics of these pollutants.
