Coca-Cola has for the second consecutive year been named the world’s largest plastic polluter.

According to the non-profit Break Free From Plastic organization, the Atlanta-based Coke is the biggest producer of plastic waste.

Before coming up with the rankings, the environmental group had 72,541 volunteers in 51 countries collect plastic waste in September and 43 percent of what they found were clearly marked consumer brands.

Coca-Cola was number one, with almost 12,000 Coca-Cola products found in 37 countries across the world. Nestle and Pepsico occupied the second and third positions respectively.

While Coke topped the list in Africa and Europe, Nestle was the biggest producer of plastic pollution in the United States. SoloSolo Cup Company and Starbucks were numbers 2 and 3 with Heineken ranked as the third-largest plastic polluter in Europe.

Coca-Cola has however issued a statement on the ranking, saying it was working towards addressing the issue.

“Any time our packaging ends up in our oceans or anywhere that it doesn’t belong, it is unacceptable to us.

“In partnership with others, we are working to address this critical global issue, both to help turn off the tap in terms of plastic waste entering our oceans and to help clean up the existing pollution,” the company said in the statement.