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PepsiCo Accelerates Plastic Waste Reduction Efforts

Roberta Barbieri, Vice President Global Sustainability, PepsiCo, shares the strategies the company is using to reach its ambitious new sustainable packaging goals.

Roberta Barbieri, Vice President Global Sustainability, PepsiCo,
Roberta Barbieri, Vice President Global Sustainability, PepsiCo,

In late 2019, PepsiCo set a new target for 2025 to reduce the use of virgin plastics for its beverage brands by 35% through the increased adoption of recycled content and alternative packaging. Here, Roberta Barbieri, Vice President Global Sustainability, PepsiCo, elaborates on the strategies the company is using to reach its ambitious sustainable packaging goals.

Packaging World:

Why did PepsiCo feel the need to up the ante with its announcement of a goal of reducing the use of virgin plastics across its beverage portfolio by 35% by 2025?

Roberta Barbieri:
We share concern over the growing threat that plastic packaging waste poses, and we recognize the significant role we can, and must, play in working to change the way society makes, uses, and disposes of plastics. Last fall we announced a new target to reduce 35% of virgin plastic content across our beverage business by 2025, which equates to the elimination of 2.5 million metric tons of cumulative virgin plastic. This is another step forward in our journey toward a world where plastics need never become waste. 

Does this change or replace any previous goals?

It does not. The target we announced builds on our other packaging goals for 2025: to make 100% of our packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable and increase our use of recycled content in plastics packaging to 25%. 

Alternative materials for PepsiCoAmong PepsiCo’s strategies for reducing plastic waste is the use of 100% rPET for its LIFEWTR bottles, the expansion of its SodaStream business, and the elimination of plastic bottles for its bubly brand.What will the use of alternative materials entail? Will it include the use of biopolymers?

Among the alternative materials to be used, beginning this year, bubly will no longer be packaged in plastic, and Aquafina will be offered in aluminum can packaging in U.S. foodservice outlets. Brand tests will also be conducted this year on the move to aluminum cans for Aquafina in retail.

Regarding biopolymers, as more carbon-efficient technologies like bio-based packaging scale, we’ll consider how this can further support our reduction targets.

In 2011, PepsiCo announced work on a 100% plant-based bottle. What is the status of that technology?

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