How far does reducing litter depend on shareholder democracy?

Owners voting their values can deliver most of this outcome.

Litter is a product before it is a problem. The 50 billion pieces Keep America Beautiful counted on the ground are drink containers, wrappers, films and cigarette butts, and a global audit that sorts collected plastic waste by brand puts the same handful of consumer companies at the top of the list year after year. What is sold as a thing to be thrown away within minutes is decided in a packaging department, which is why the heaviest obstacle here is corporate conduct rather than public manners.

The second heaviest is what those companies spend to stop the laws that would make them responsible for collection. New York's Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act passed the Senate in 2024 and again in 2025 and died in the Assembly both times after intense lobbying, and the beverage industry's own recycling campaign was found by the National Advertising Review Board to have made unsupported claims. An obstacle that consists of what a company pays for and says is not one step removed from corporate conduct: it is corporate conduct.

Owners are already voting on this and coming close. A packaging materials report at Amazon in 2022 failed by eight million votes out of 370 million cast. Proposals at McDonald's, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Altria have all been put and lost. The quick report this one replaces rated litter Helpful on the reasoning that the person dropping the wrapper decides the outcome. That person does decide the last second of it, and the containers in their hand, the deposit on them and the law that would put one there are all decided elsewhere, by companies with owners.

What owners can do

• Vote for packaging proposals at Amazon, McDonald's, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, and vote alongside As You Sow, which files them
• Ask the manager of your index fund how it voted on the Amazon packaging materials proposal in 2022, which failed by eight million votes
• Vote for proposals asking companies to report what their trade associations spend against deposit and producer-responsibility bills
• Vote for producer responsibility proposals at tobacco companies, whose filters are the single most littered item in the country

Where this sits on our maps

• UN SDG Target 12.5: Substantially reduce waste generation · see it on the UNSDG map
• UN SDG Target 14.1: Reduce marine pollution, including nutrients and plastics · see it on the UNSDG map
• UN SDG Target 11.6: Reduce urban air pollution and waste impacts · see it on the UNSDG map
• JUST Capital issue: Minimizes pollution
• JUST Capital issue: Uses resources efficiently

Organizations to know

• As You Sow (shareholder advocacy on record) Files the packaging and producer responsibility proposals that put this question to owners☆ Follow
• Break Free From Plastic (shareholder advocacy on record) Runs the brand audit that names the companies whose products are collected as litter
• Beyond Plastics (shareholder advocacy on record) Challenged the beverage industry's recycling campaign and backed the New York packaging bill
• Keep America Beautiful (shareholder advocacy on record) Holds the national litter study this report rests on
• Ocean Conservancy (shareholder advocacy on record) Runs the coastal cleanup whose counts show what litter is made of
• The Coca-Cola Company (publicly listed) Named the top global plastic polluter in the brand audit, and the target of a 2026 packaging proposal☆ Follow
• PepsiCo, Inc. (publicly listed) Named in the brand audit and the target of the 2025 flexible packaging proposal☆ Follow
• Amazon.com, Inc. (publicly listed) Where the packaging vote came closest to carrying☆ Follow
• Altria Group, Inc. (publicly listed) Target of the cigarette filter producer responsibility proposal and a sponsor of the cigarette litter programme☆ Follow

Sources

1. Driving Results with Scientific Studies: Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study (Solid Waste Association of North America)
2. Learn About Aquatic Trash (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
3. Aquatic Trash Prevention Information and Resources for Stormwater and Solid Waste Practitioners (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
4. Brand Audit 2023 Report (Break Free From Plastic)
5. 2023 Global Brand Audit: The Coca-Cola Company is once again the top global plastic polluter (Break Free From Plastic)
6. Growing bottle bill modernization and momentum (Resource Recycling)
7. The National Advertising Review Board Slams the American Beverage Association for Its Deceptive Every Bottle Back Campaign (Beyond Plastics)
8. New York packaging EPR bill won't move forward in 2026 (Packaging Dive)
9. Packaging groups engaged on numerous state EPR bills in 2024. What have they learned? (Waste Dive)
10. Keep America Beautiful to Award Up to $375K in Grants to Combat Cigarette Litter (Keep America Beautiful)
11. Notice of Exempt Solicitation: As You Sow on Amazon packaging, Item 8, 2022 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
12. Amazon.com, Inc. 8-K, Item 5.07, 2022 annual meeting voting results (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
13. Notice of Exempt Solicitation: As You Sow on McDonald's plastics use, Item 5, 2022 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
14. McDonald's Corporation 8-K, Item 5.07, 2022 annual meeting voting results (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
15. Notice of Exempt Solicitation: As You Sow on Altria and producer responsibility for plastic cigarette waste, 2024 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
16. Altria Group, Inc. 8-K, Item 5.07, 2024 annual meeting voting results (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
17. Notice of Exempt Solicitation: As You Sow on PepsiCo flexible plastics, Item 7, 2025 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
18. PepsiCo, Inc. 8-K, Item 5.07, 2025 annual meeting voting results (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
19. The Coca-Cola Company 8-K, Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting voting results (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
20. Cleanups and the International Coastal Cleanup (Ocean Conservancy)

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