Food and beverage giant PepsiCo has vowed to remove all virgin plastic from its Pepsi bottles in the UK and eight other countries by 2022.
The company says it will package the entire range of beverages under the brand with plastics recycled from post- consumer packaging (recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or ‘rPET’).
The bottles will all be 100% rPET in the UK by 2022
It added that it will also continue its progress towards “growing reuse and refill systems”.
Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece and Spain will switch to 100% rPET in 2021, while France, Great Britain, Belgium and Luxembourg will be at 100% rPET in 2022.
PepsiCo added that technological innovations in the use of recycled plastics in carbonated drink bottles, improvements in the appearance of recycled plastic, and greater availability of recycled materials on the market have made it possible for the company to achieve this.
‘Immediate action’
Silviu Popovici, CEO, PepsiCo Europe said: “We are committed to immediate action to address the plastic waste challenge. Starting with these nine markets, we are working to incorporate 100% recycled plastic into our beverage bottles so we can minimise our use of virgin, fossil-fuel based packaging. We will also look to go further and faster in other European markets where the conditions allow.
“Working with policy makers and waste management systems, we need to collect more bottles so that plastic needs never become waste. Everyone can and should play a part in developing a circular economy for plastic.”
PepsiCo recently announced that a further three of its brands (Tropicana, Naked Smoothies and Lipton Iced Tea) will also move to 100% rPET bottles across a number of EU markets, including the UK. This took place in August 2020.
Plastic
The company estimated that using 100% rPET for these bottles will eliminate over 70,000 tonnes of virgin fossil-fuel based plastic per year and lower carbon emissions per bottle by 40%.
It follows the company’s announcement in 2018 that it would get to 50% rPET usage across the EU by 2030. To date, it has reached 30%.
The company said it is working to increase this percentage further through “design improvements” such as moving to clear bottles.
It added that it is part of its commitment to the European Commissions recycled plastics campaign, that seeks to ensure that ten million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make new products in the EU market by 2025.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
