ENVIRONMENTAL protestors gathered on a busy Southampton street to campaign against a global soft drinks company.

The group from Southampton Greenpeace were joined by community singers from Red Star Choir with passersby invited to sign the petition calling for Coca-Cola to reduce their plastic footprint.

It’s part of a national End Ocean Plastics campaign - which aims to reduce the estimated 12 million tonnes of plastic entering the oceans every year.

The protest comes as the iconic Coca-Cola truck prepares to arrive in Southampton this weekend for its annual festive visit.

Shopper Nicky Richmond, 58, a bookkeeper, from Hamble, was prepared to back the campaign.

She said: “I feel quite strongly about the situation and it’s something I have been thinking about for a long time. I don’t think people in Southampton know enough about it.

“We are on Southampton Water and we belong to the conservation group and we see it all the time.”

Organiser Rhia Weston said that by the end of Saturday 65 people had signed up to the campaign and added: “We have been campaigning for a few months and have been doing a number of different actions around the city.”

As previously reported the group will be campaigning in the days running up to the arrival of the iconic Coca Cola Christmas truck, which comes to the city on November 25 and 26 as part of its UK tour.

But Ms Weston said they won’t be campaigning on those days because they don’t want to detract from the charity that Coca Cola supports with its truck.

The Coca-Cola truck truck makes a stop at West Quay Shopping Centre.

This year it is stopping for an extra day in the city on its tour of 730,000 miles, or 29 years round the globe since it started in 2011

A spokesperson at Coca-Cola Great Britain defended their work for the environment.

He said: “During the Christmas truck tour, we sample 150ml cans of Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Diet Coke.

“All our bottles and cans are 100% recyclable.

“We’ve also committed to increasing the amount of recycled and renewable material in our plastic bottles from 25% to 50% by 2020.”