Image: Greenpeace

As is my habit, I picked up 6 pieces of plastic litter this morning on my way to buy a paper – a water bottle, some plastic wrappers and a couple of straws. But I must admit, I didn’t pay any attention to the brands responsible – I think one straw was in Maccy D’s colours. But, fear not, the Break Free from Plastic campaign has analysed 187,000 pieces of beach litter from 239 cleanups across 42 countries in six continents. The above infographic shows the worst offenders.

This reminds me of the Greenpeace (who did much of the analysis above) campaign on electronics’ brands eco-performance in the mid-2000s, which put Apple at the bottom of the heap. Steve Jobs was not renowned for changing his mind, but he quickly switched from dismissing the charges to launching a massive eco-drive.

Likewise, making the link from the plastic problem back to the source will be making many of those brands very uncomfortable. No longer is it a generic plastic bottle on a beach, it’s a Coke bottle. No longer is it a societal problem, met with warm words and a long term commitment, but a serious brand protection issue, requiring swift action.

Well done Break Free from Plastic, this could be a gamechanger.