PepsiCo accelerates plastic waste reduction efforts

Progress will be driven by the company’s increased use of recycled content and alternative packaging materials for its beverage brands

PepsiCo, Inc. has announced a new target to reduce 35% of virgin plastic content across its beverage portfolio by 2025, which equates to the elimination of 2.5 million metric tons of cumulative virgin plastic. 

Progress will be driven by the company’s increased use of recycled content and alternative packaging materials for its beverage brands, including LIFEWTR®, bubly™ and Aquafina®, which recently announced sustainable packaging efforts.

Additionally, through the expansion of PepsiCo’s SodaStream® business, an estimated 67 billion plastic bottles will be avoided through 2025. These targets advance PepsiCo’s sustainable packaging vision and reinforce its “Beyond the Bottle” strategy which, in addition to SodaStream, includes the mobile-enabled Hydration Platform and other offerings that deliver beverages without single-use plastic bottles.

The announcement builds upon the company’s already announced packaging goals to, by 2025: make 100% of its packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable; and increase its use of recycled content in plastics packaging to 25%. Examples of PepsiCo’s progress in sustainable packaging include:

• PepsiCo’s premium water brand LIFEWTR will be packaged in 100% rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) in the U.S., as the company’s Naked Juice brand currently is, and bubly will no longer be packaged in plastic, starting in 2020.
• Aquafina will begin offering aluminum can packaging in U.S. foodservice outlets, while the brand tests the move in retail, starting in 2020.
• In select locations across Latin America and Asia, brands like Pepsi®, 7UP® and Mirinda® offer consumers refillable plastic and glass bottles.
• In Western Europe, Tropicana® relaunched using 50% rPET bottles and aims to reach 100% rPET by 2025.