Fig. 2

Sankey diagram of global flows of total cumulative estimated mass of plastics (in MMT) from the top three global beverage companies from 2000 to 2023 flowing to countries and then to end-of-life sinks. (A–C), Mass flows from companies (organized by decreasing plastic waste mass), to countries (categorized by income classification and organized by decreasing population and) to waste end-of-life sinks. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé produced an estimated 59 MMT, 45 MMT and 33 MMT of plastic waste respectively, over 2000–2023. (B) Plastic packaging sold to countries. Economies of countries (n = 217) were classified to four income levels as defined by the World Bank. (C) The flow of plastic into six designated end-of-life sinks as classified by the World Bank on waste sinks by country (n = 217 countries).