Fanta, Sprite and Coke are flowing unabated at Olympic venues, where staff have been seen emptying plastic bottles into reusable cups —a practice some say runs counter to the Games' pledge to be the greenest in history.

In May, the Coca-Cola Company said that nearly 10 out of 18 million refreshments —"more than half" of all those served to spectators— would be "without single-use plastic". But the Atlanta-based giant said it has had to use plastics due to "technical and logistical constraints", despite Paris banning spectators from bringing single-use containers into Olympics sites.

At the site for the swimming events, for example, glass bottles were being emptied into red-and-white cups, as noted by one AFP journalist. While 700 drink fountains have been deployed across the competition, plastic bottles are being used where glass alternatives aren't an option, said Georgina Grenon, the head of sustainability for the Paris Games.

In a press release on Friday Coca-Cola said it needed to adapt to each location and find the "best conditions for safety and food quality", given technical and logistical constraints including water and electricity supplies, and storage space. But this year's Paris Games should still slash plastic use compared to the 2012 London Games, according to the organising committee.

"In our estimations of what will be served... we believe we will attain this 50 per cent plastic single-use plastic reduction," said Grenon.

The bottles poured into cups would not count towards this target, she added.

Environmental protection charity France Nature Environment (FNE) slammed the firm for "unjustified plastic pollution", adding on Friday that the US company deserved the "gold medal for greenwashing" during the Olympics.

In 2022, the most recent data available, Coca-Cola, which is one of the world's top plastics producers, manufactured 134 billion plastic bottles. The beverage giant has set a target for all its bottles to be made from fully recycled plastic by 2030.

Of those currently filling rubbish bins at the Paris Games, Coca-Cola said around 6.2 million would be from this form, known as PET plastic.

"Sportswashing"
Health experts have also called for Olympic organisers to cut ties with Coca-Cola on Tuesday: saying the current big-money sponsorship deal allows the US company to "sportswash" unhealthy sugary drinks. 

Events at the Paris Games have been lined with advertising for the ubiquitous fizzy drinks of Coca-Cola, which has been sponsoring the Olympics since 1928.

These sugary drinks, however, "offer little or no nutritional value" and promoting such unhealthy products has no place in sport, according to Trish Cotter and Sandra Mullin of global health group Vital Strategies. 

Sugary drinks are a "key driver" of a range of serious health problems affecting people across the world, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, the pair wrote in a commentary in the journal BMJ Global Health.

Coca-Cola's products also contribute to global plastic pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions while using up huge amouns of water, they added.

"By continuing its association with Coca-Cola, the Olympic movement risks being complicit in intensifying a global epidemic of poor nutrition, environmental degradation and climate change," the authors wrote. "It's time for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to cut ties with Coca-Cola in the interest of athletes, spectators and the planet."
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment. 

In 2020, the US food and drink giant signed a joint deal worth a reported $3 billion to extend its sponsorship of the Olympics. The partnership will last until at least 2032. Cotter and Mullin noted that last year Coca-Cola had more sports sponsorships than any other brand, including sportswear companies such as Nike.

"This strategy culminates in a gold medal opportunity to "sportswash" an unhealthy product, they said. The World Health Organization has called for countries to tax sugar-sweetened beverages. A petition launched ahead of the Games called "Kick Big Soda Out Of Sport" has more than 109,000 signatures, and has been backed by a range of public health organisations including the World Obesity Federation.