PepsiCo has announced that it is ditching one of its key sustainable packaging goals and scaling back other initiatives amid struggles to meet its targets. It says it is refocusing its efforts "where it believes it can have the most positive impact."
What's happening?
As detailed by Packaging Dive, PepsiCo is making significant changes to its PepsiCo Positive (pep+) sustainability strategy, launched in 2021. The beverage giant notably scrapped its goal of selling 20% of beverages in reusable containers by 2030.
Instead, it says it will track reusability as part of its reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging goal — which it has also altered to be less ambitious. PepsiCo now looks to ensure 97% of its packaging is RRC by the end of the decade rather than 100%.
PepsiCo has also dropped the percentage of recycled content it intends to incorporate in its packaging by 2025 by 10 percentage points, and it has sunset its plans to reduce absolute tonnage of virgin plastic derived from non-renewable sources by 20% over the next five years.
"These refined goals reflect transparency about challenges while reinforcing a commitment to rigorous progress-tracking to pursue the company's long-term sustainability vision," the company wrote in its news release.
Why is this important?
Along with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo regularly ranks among the world's top plastic polluters. However, the pep+ strategy provided hope that the soft drink maker would begin to clean up its act in a more meaningful way.
Plastic can take generations to break down, so it quickly piles up in already overcrowded landfills and in communities as unregulated litter, contaminating soil and water as well as harming wildlife that mistake it for food or become ensnared.
And even though PepsiCo has marketed its plastic bottles as recyclable, a lawsuit filed by the government of the Virgin Islands alleges the soft drink maker, along with Coca-Cola, hasn't been forthcoming about the actual recyclability of its bottles, leading to a waste-management crisis.
More broadly, the nonprofit Greenpeace has warned that plastic recycling isn't a viable solution to handle the 440 million tons of plastic waste produced each year, as most plastics can't be recycled. In the United States, reprocessing rates for some plastics are under 5%.
These are all reasons why many forward-thinking consumers are supporting plastic-free products and brands with plastic-free packaging.
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Despite the discouraging news, PepsiCo is strengthening its commitment to regenerative agriculture, which supports soil health and can reduce agricultural pollution — and is more cost-effective for farmers because it reduces reliance on expensive fertilizers and pesticides.
In its release, PepsiCo announced that it delivered 3.5 million acres of regenerative agriculture by the end of last year as planned and that it intends to expand to 10 million acres by 2030. The company also exceeded its agricultural water-efficiency goals.
"We know it's important that we continue to be transparent about our progress — both our successes and the challenges — and the dynamic realities that our company and the broader industry face today," said Jim Andrew, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer. "Our sustainability journey will not always be linear, but we are focused on doing the work that can both strengthen our business resilience and support a positive impact for the planet."
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