Greenpeace slams Coca-Cola's 110 billion plastic bottles a year with sassy Christmas advert

Greenpeace has released a "new and improved" Coca-Cola Christmas advert - slamming the global soft drinks firm for producing around 110 billion plastic bottles every year, many of which end up in landfills, on beaches or in the ocean.

The advert seems to begin just like any other Christmas campaign with all the cliches, including a man arriving home to his family, a couple kissing under the mistletoe, a little girl looking excitedly out of the window, children playing in the snow and presents being exchanged by the tree.

But gradually a more sinister tone creeps in, as viewers begin to see used plastic scattered around the home, with bottles filling the fridge, falling down the chimney and littered around the base of a snowman.

The advert ends with a middle-aged Father Christmas backing up his lorry, which seems to resemble the classic red Coca-Cola lorry, on to a beach to dump plastic bottles straight into the sea.

He drinks some Coke himself and throws his used bottle carelessly into the waves. "Don't let Coke choke our oceans," the advert concludes.

A truckload of plastic enters the world's oceans every minute, Greenpeace said; that's around 12.7 million tonnes. Once there it can choke and entangle sea creatures, and break down into microplastics that are mistaken for food by marine life ranging in size from giant whales to zooplankton.

Coca-Cola's beloved Christmas advert featuring its iconic red trucks is labelled by many as the official start of the Christmas season. Greenpeace said: "Coke wants to be associated with festive cheer, but what a downer. As the world's biggest soft drinks company, Coke has a special responsibility to act so we're calling on them to ditch throwaway plastic and invest in new and innovative reusable alternatives."

A spokesperson for Coca-Cola Great Britain responded by saying all its bottles and cans are 100% recyclable and that there is a widespread issue of plastic pollution far beyond the company.

They said: "We absolutely agree with Greenpeace that there is a global issue with ocean litter. We know we have a role to play in tackling this problem and we are taking actions to do so.

"We, of course, do not want to see any of our bottles or cans end up as litter. We want them all back. That's why all of our bottles and cans are 100% recyclable.

"We have also committed to double the amount of recycled plastic in our bottles from 25% to 50% by 2020, and we are supportive of a deposit return scheme to try to get more bottles back, to help us achieve this. We believe this is just the start of the journey and have ambitions to go beyond this.

"However, sadly this video from Greenpeace overlooks the widespread issue of ocean plastic pollution that sits beyond just Coca-Cola."

Coca-Cola's own Christmas advert is due to be launched on Friday (17 November).