NORTH AMERICA – Beverage and snack food maker PepsiCo has announced plans to replace plastic rings on its beverage multipacks with paper-based solutions across the US and Canada.
The company said that it is the first beverage company in North America to introduce a paper-based solution for multipacks that have traditionally featured plastic rings.
Following this announcement, PepsiCo Beverages North America will begin rolling out the new paperboard designs across the US later this year. The designs will be introduced in a phased manner, with a regional approach.
The effort builds on the beverage company’s existing progress in Canada, where the move to switch to paperboard designs has already begun.
This transition to recyclable paper packaging will be implemented for PepsiCo’s various brands, including Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, Starry, MTN DEW, and Gatorade, among other branded products. PepsiCo’s 7Up product in Canada will also be a part of this change.
The new paperboard packs, according to the company, feature a consumer-friendly branded design and will be easy to accommodate on marketplace shelves.
The latest move comes as part of the company’s PepsiCo Positive (pep+) sustainable packaging initiative.
The pep+ effort aims to ensure that PepsiCo’s packaging ‘never becomes waste’ and contributes to a circular economy system.
The initiative also includes PepsiCo’s commitment to achieve a 50% reduction in the use of virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving across its global beverage and convenience foods portfolio by 2030, versus the 2020 baseline.
This latest multipack effort will help the company remove millions of pounds of plastics from its packaging in North America over the next few years while strengthening its packaging circularity efforts.
In December 2022, PepsiCo announced its global packaging goal to boost the use of reusable packaging in its beverage products.
Under the plans, the company aims to sell 20% of beverage products in reusable packaging by 2030. PepsiCo currently uses reusable packaging for only 10% of its beverages.
PepsiCo plans to achieve these goals by expanding its SodaStream reuse platform to both homes and workplaces through SodaStream Professional. The firm invested over US$3.2 billion to acquire SodaStream in 2018.
The firm also announced plans to collaborate with its bottlers to advance its refillable plastic (PET) and glass bottle offerings.
Additionally, the US-based food, snack, and beverage firm will add reusable cups to its fountain drinks business and accelerate growth in powders and concentrates.
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