Lowering carbon emissions by 40 percent compared to standard bottles, PepsiCo will eliminate all virgin plastic from the Pepsi brand in nine European markets.
The company, which will package all Pepsi bottles with plastics recycled from post-consumer packaging, estimates that the move to 100 percent rPET will eliminate over 70,000 tonnes of virgin, fossil-fuel-based plastic per year.
Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece, and Spain will switch to 100 percent rPET in 2021, while France, Great Britain, Belgium and Luxembourg will be at 100 percent rPET in 2022. The move applies to company-owned and franchise bottlers in the relevant markets.
“Starting with these nine markets, we are working to incorporate 100 percent 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,” noted Silviu Popovici, CEO, PepsiCo Europe.
The 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.
