Soft drinks manufacturer PepsiCo has announced that it intends to use 100% rPET in UK by 2022 in its Pepsi beverage bottles.
Nine European countries will switch to 100% rPET by 2022 with Germany, Poland, Romania, Greece and Spain making the transition from virgin polymer in 2021.
This will be followed the year after by France, UK, Belgium and Luxembourg.
However, in France, UK, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, PepsiCo will include all soft drinks in its commitment, so brands like 7UP, Mountain Dew and Lipton Ice Tea will also use 100% rPET.
Poland and Romania will also use 100% rPET in Mirinda bottles.
This means that by 2022, PepsiCo will eliminate over 70,000 tonnes of virgin PET from its manufacturing and brings it closer to its goal of using 50% rPET across the EU by 2030. It has already reached 30%.
PepsiCo Europe chief executive 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 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 policy makers and waste management systems, we need to collect more plastic bottles so that plastic needs never become waste. Everyone can and should play a part in developing a circular economy for plastic.”
