As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy organization, has asked Mondelēz International to phase out unrecyclable packaging from its products and assess the environmental and operational risks associated with it.
The move is a part of As You Sow's waste program which encourages companies to reduce and manage the waste generated by their products.
The proposal received support from 28.4% of Mondelez's shareholders, which represents shares worth $11.8bn, at the company's annual meeting.
As You Sow senior vice president Conrad MacKerron said that shareholders should be concerned that the company is selling packaging that is designed to be dumped in a landfill.
"Using unrecyclable packaging when alternatives are available leads to increased use of virgin materials and wastes enormous amounts of valuable resources that could be reused many times over," MacKerron added.
"There is no reason to be marketing unrecyclable packaging to kids and families when better alternatives have been on the market for decades."
Natural Resources Defense Council senior resource specialist Darby Hoover said that plastic packaging is a prime component of marine litter, which global authorities have documented kills and injures marine life and poses a potential threat to human health.
"Recent research indicates discarded plastics collect toxins and transfer them into the marine food web and potentially to human diets," added Hoover.
The proposal by As You Sow comes after consumer goods giant Colgate-Palmolive recently agreed to transition to recyclable packaging for three of four product divisions by 2020.
Headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, Mondelez International is a snack food producer with various brands, including Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, Trident gum, and Philadelphia cream cheese.
