In 2018, PepsiCo announced that it would use 50% recycled plastic in its bottles across the EU by 2030 and has already reached 30%
PepsiCo believes the move to 100% rPET will eliminate more than 70,000 tonnes of virgin (Credit: Pixabay)
Soft drinks giant PepsiCo has committed to using 100% recycled plastic in all of its Pepsi brand beverage bottles sold in nine European Union markets by 2022.
The company will package the entire range of beverages under that brand with plastics recycled from post-consumer packaging, also known as rPET.
In addition to this, it will continue its progress towards growing reuse and refill systems such as SodaStream.
The firm believes the move to 100% rPET will eliminate more than 70,000 tonnes of virgin, fossil-fuel-based plastic per year and will lower carbon emissions per bottle by approximately 40%.
PepsiCo Europe’s CEO Silviu Popovici 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.
“Collaboration between all stakeholders across the EU is central to this issue. We need to design packaging to be recyclable, reduce the amount of packaging we use, and make it easy for consumers to recycle.
“Working with policymakers 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 beverage bottles in Germany, Poland, Romania Greece, and Spain to switch to 100% recycled plastic by 2021
In 2018, the company had announced that it would get to 50% rPET usage across the EU by 2030 and has already reached 30%, with this announcement marking a significant acceleration toward reaching this goal.
This is due in part to 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.
Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece and Spain will switch to 100% rPET in 2021, while France, the UK, Belgium and Luxembourg will be at 100% rPET in 2022.
These moves apply to both company-owned and franchise bottlers in the relevant markets.
In France, the UK, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg the commitment goes beyond Pepsi brands to include all soft drinks, for instance 7Up, Mountain Dew and Lipton Ice Tea.
This new PepsiCo commitment supports the European Commission’s recycled plastics pledging campaign that seeks to ensure that ten million tonnes of recycled plastics are used to make new products in the EU market by 2025.