MOSCOW (MRC) -- PepsiCo Europe will cease using virgin fossil-based plastic in crisp and chip bags and switch to a mix of recycled and bio-based polymers by 2030, said the company.
PepsiCo has committed to eliminating virgin fossil-based plastics across all of its European brands of crisps and chip bags by 2030. This will apply to well-known brands such as Lay’s, Doritos and Walkers. Consumer trials of the new packaging will begin later this year. The recycled content in the packs will be derived from previously used plastic and the renewable content will come from by-products of plants such as used cooking oil or waste from paper pulp.
According to PepsiCo, the change in packaging could deliver an emissions reduction of up to 40% per tonne of packaging material. PepsiCo Europe’s chief executive Silviu Popovici said: “Flexible packaging recycling should be the norm across Europe. We see a future where our bags will be free of virgin fossil-based plastic.
"They will be part of a thriving circular economy where flexible packaging is valued and can be recycled as a new packet. We’re investing with our partners to build technological capacity to do that. We now need an appropriate regulatory landscape in place so that packaging never becomes waste."
The new packaging forms part of PepsiCo’s Making Bags Better initiative that focuses on improving the recyclability of flexible plastics across Europe. The new bags will use more plastics that PepsiCo believes are easier to recycle, like Polypropylene. The company claims that the new designers meet guidelines from the Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX).
More broadly, PepsiCo is working to reduce virgin plastic usage by 50% per serving by 2030.
Earlier it was reported that Frito Lay Manufacturing LLC (a division of PepsiCo) on August 28, 2019 put into operation the fifth line for the production of snacks at its plant in the city of Azov, Rostov Region, worth more than 400 million rubles.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC