PepsiCo kicked the single-use plastic bottle down the road when it failed to quantitatively detail progress towards its new goal to reach 20 percent reusable beverage packaging in its recently pub-lished 2022 sustainability report (its ESG Summary). Additionally, the company reported a 4 per-cent increase in its total plastic use from 2021 to 2022 (from 2.5 to 2.6 million metric tons). Pepsi-Co also reported that it increased its use of virgin plastic by 11 percent against a 2020 baseline. PepsiCo did not explain how its reusable goal, dependent in part on newer business models, would reduce the company’s single use plastic footprint for its existing beverage business.
In March 2022, in response to a shareholder resolution submitted by the non-profit As You Sow, PepsiCo agreed to set a time-bound goal by the end of 2022 to increase reusable beverage packag-ing to help cut its use of single-use plastic. Then, in December 2022, PepsiCo announced a pledge to increase the percentage of beverage servings delivered through reusable models from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2030. However, in the company’s sustainability report published on June 29, more than a year after PepsiCo first committed to increasing reuse, the company stated that it was not re-porting on its progress towards this goal because it is “in the process of identifying and validating global servings volume sold by customers in reusable fountain cups and this information is not cur-rently included in our reporting.” PepsiCo “plan[s] to report progress against this goal starting with 2023 data.”
In response to PepsiCo’s recent reporting, Oceana released the following statement from director of Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Dana Miller:
“PepsiCo needs to stop delaying and start taking its reusable goal seriously. The oceans can’t wait. The surge in the use of single-use plastic packaging by Pepsi and other companies is overwhelming the seas. A report by Oceana found that increasing the market share of refillable bottles by 10 per-cent in all coastal countries in place of single-use plastic could keep as many as 7.6 billion plastic bottles per year out of the ocean. It is critical for our oceans that PepsiCo and other major beverage companies increase their use of refillable and reusable containers.
PepsiCo’s main rival, The Coca-Cola Company, has a global goal to reach 25 percent reusable packaging by 2030 (and is currently at 14 percent). They are also the leading sponsor of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which the Mayor of Paris announced would be free from single use plastic. PepsiCo, along with The Coca-Cola Company, a member of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, is calling for countries to set binding targets for reusable packaging. The negotiation of the UN agreement is slated for completion by 2024.
Oceana is dedicated solely to ocean conservation.