In a significant step toward sustainability, Coca-Cola will be partnering with The Ocean Cleanup to open a waste sorting facility on Malaysia's Klang River.
According to a company press release, the facility will intercept waste in the river, preventing it from flowing into the ocean.
This technology, called Interceptor 002, is powered by solar energy. It's one of four machines of its kind, which have removed over 3 million kilograms (about 6.6 million pounds) of trash from rivers worldwide, per The Ocean Cleanup. It utilizes a barrier to guide pollution toward the machine's conveyor belt, which delivers waste to a shuttle that drops it into a series of dumpsters.
At the facility, a team of full-time workers is employed to sort the recyclables from nonrecyclables. The Ocean Cleanup's rivers director, Marco Piët, said at the opening event, per Coca-Cola, that the company plans to eliminate about one-third of plastic waste from flowing into the oceans.
This eco-friendly initiative is a major step forward for Coca-Cola, which has a spotty environmental track record. While cleaning up the Klang River's plastic pollution is a net positive, it's important to remember that Coca-Cola was the world's worst plastic polluter from 2018 to 2023, according to audits conducted by Break Free From Plastic.
However, it seems like the international soda company is attempting to heal the damage. Recently, it co-signed an open letter to the United Nations in support of an antiplastic treaty. Hopefully, Coca-Cola and other large companies will continue down this path toward a brighter, greener future.
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Syaiful Azmen Nordin, managing director at Landasan Lumayan Sdn Bhd, owners of the Selangor Maritime Gateway, said in a statement, per Coca-Cola: "The health of the Klang River is a shared responsibility — critical to our local communities and the environment."
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