Plastic bottles reveal the companies behind a Pacific litter crisis

Plastic bottles and caps clutter beaches up and down Latin America’s Pacific coast. Most of them aren’t foreign – they’re local. And the bottles can often be traced back to three big names in the beverage industry: The Coca-Cola Company, Aje Group, and PepsiCo.

The coastlines hit hardest by this plastic waste are in Central America. That’s likely because of how common single-use bottles are, combined with poor waste infrastructure and the push of ocean currents.

Meanwhile, island beaches – like those on the Galápagos and Rapa Nui – tend to collect more bottles from Asia, possibly dumped at sea and carried long distances.

A trail of plastic along the Pacific

The findings come from a major study led by researchers at the University of Barcelona. Their work covered more than 12,000 kilometers of Pacific coastline, spanning from Mexico to Chile.

The research is the first regional effort of its kind, mapping plastic bottle pollution across 10 Latin American countries. The team studied 92 mainland beaches, 15 island beaches, and 38 coastal communities.

This wasn’t just a lab project. It was a massive collaboration. Between 2023 and 2024, more than 1,000 volunteers and 200 local leaders helped collect samples, making this a landmark example of citizen science in action.

The data shows a clear pattern. Most bottles were found in mainland urban areas, while island beaches often had older items, sometimes dating back over two decades.

The oldest samples included a Powerade® bottle from 2001 found in Peru, and a Coca-Cola® bottle from 2002 on a Chilean island.

What bottle labels reveal

By reading the labels and engravings on bottles and caps, scientists were able to figure out where each item came from and how long it had been floating around.

Study co-author Miquel Canals is a professor in the Department of Earth and Ocean Dynamics.

“In addition to the great value of citizen science, a particularly remarkable element of the work carried out is the intelligent use of the information contained in the bottles and their caps (labels, engravings) to obtain key information about the manufacturer, and the date and place of manufacture, among others,” said Professor Canals.

“This allowed us to identify the sources of this contamination and the route taken by individual items until they reach the beach or town where they were collected.”

Identifying the plastic bottles

Out of all the bottles collected, 59% were produced in Latin American Pacific countries. The most common types were for soft drinks, water, and energy drinks – most of them single-use and single-serve.

In urban areas and on mainland beaches, 54.9% of the bottles were found without caps. On island beaches, 73.4% still had their caps attached.

Researchers identified 356 brands from 253 companies, with The Coca-Cola Company, Aje Group, and PepsiCo appearing most frequently.

Where the plastic comes from

While most bottles were locally produced, some came from farther away. A small but telling share were from Asia (1.8%), North America (0.3%), and Europe (0.04%). In nearly 39% of cases, the origin could not be determined.

“On the mainland beaches of Mexico, Guatemala and the southern countries – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile – most of the bottles came from the same country,” noted the researchers.

“In contrast, in the Central American countries – El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama – the percentages of locally sourced items were significantly lower, with those of external origin predominating.”

Plastic diversity hotspots

Panama turned out to be a hotspot for diversity in plastic waste, with bottles coming from at least six different regions.

On the islands, the situation shifted. Just 42.4% of bottles were from Latin America, and a large portion came from Asia.

“The distribution of bottle origins is not random, but geographically structured, with a predominance of specific countries of origin in specific environments and sub-regions, and also in specific countries, of course,” noted the study authors.

“This trend would reflect the consumption habits, waste management practices (where they exist) and oceanographic transport processes that influence the distribution of these plastic pollutants.”

When plastic becomes habitat

Plastic bottles don’t just float. Some become temporary homes for marine organisms. Scientists found these “epibionts” – tiny creatures clinging to the plastic – on nearly 9% of bottles.

The organisms showed up most often on mainland beaches in Central America. That supports the idea that some of this plastic arrives via ocean currents after spending time adrift.

Study lead author Ostin Garcés-Ordóñez is a member of the UB’s Consolidated Research Group in Marine Geosciences and the University of La Guajira.

“These findings point to a spatial pattern in the age of the items: the most recent ones predominate in human settlements, while the oldest ones are found on beaches, especially on the beaches of oceanic islands,” said Garcés-Ordóñez.

Turning beach waste into policy action

Tackling this issue isn’t just about cleaning up beaches. The study calls for better local waste management and pressure on companies to move toward reusable packaging.

“In the future, we want to analyze the impact of seasonal climatic variations, river inputs and tourist activity on the dynamics of plastic bottle and cap pollution on coasts and in coastal cities,” said the researchers.

“Oceanographic modeling could also be integrated to track the transport trajectories of plastic litter in the ocean and thus identify distant sources of pollution.”

The full study was published in the journal Journal of Cleaner Production.

Image Credit: Ostin Garcés

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