> It's not like Coca-Cola goes around and throws their cans or bottles in nature

They as well could.

They choose to profit from producing the stuff.

They could as well use glass as they did for decades, or sell reusable bottles and refill those. They choose to operate in countries without proper waste management knowing where that trash will end up, and are operating there anyway.

They know the damage they're causing, they've been influencing policies for decades with "reuse, recycle, reduce", even if they knew that recycling doesn't work and that just 8% of plastic ever made was recycled.

The (microplasti) pollution problem is huge, and damage they're causing is immense.

They are the (major) symptom of the problem that needs solving.

When I was a kid, coca cola products in my country came in glass bottles that you had to leave a refundable deposit to carry away, creating an incentive to keep them out of the garbage and take them back. By moving away from this, yes, they are responsible to some degree for the plastic pollution.

This exists for plastic bottles as well, your country just didn't implement it as they did for glass. According to your own argument, your country is now responsible to some degree for the plastic pollution.

There are microplastics in the contents of those bottles. Just by opening those bottles you're releasing countless microplastics into the air. Even if we'd manage to collect all those bottles, it would still pollute.

Yes, governments are among those responsible.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61146-4

Microplastics generated when opening plastic packaging

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237900-just-opening-a-...

Just opening a plastic bottle can release thousands of microplastics

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/15/micropla...

WHO launches health review after microplastics found in 90% of bottled water This article is more than 5 years old

Researchers find levels of plastic fibres in popular bottled water brands could be twice as high as those found in tap water

What do you mean? I can take my plastic bottles back to the seller to get 10 cents per bottle back on the purchase (that's what it was when I was a kid, a non-trivial amount back then), and the bottle will be cleaned and reused without grinding the? Because that's what I meant.

Sending plastic bottles to recycling is pointless and doesn't work, anywhere.