PepsiCo eliminating plastic rings on beverage multipacks

Image Credit: PepsiCo Inc.

Beverage and snack food maker PepsiCo Inc. will begin using paper packaging to replace plastic beverage rings on multipacks in the U.S. starting later this year, following a similar transition already under way in Canada.

In an Aug. 24 news release, the Purchase, N.Y.-based company said that paperboard designs will be introduced in a “phased, regional approach”.

PepsiCo will use paperboard wraps and paperboard clips for its multipacks in place of traditional plastic rings for brands like Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, MTN DEW, Starry, Gatorade, and others. It will also include 7Up in Canada. “The new packaging is easy to implement on shelf for customers, has consumer-friendly branded-design, is made from recycled materials and is recyclable,” the company said.

The move is part of PepsiCo’s goal of reducing its use of virgin plastic from nonrenewable sources per serving across its global beverage and convenient foods portfolio by 50 per cent by 2030, using the company’s 2020 consumption level as a baseline to measure the its decrease in virgin plastics use per serving. PepsiCo says it will eliminate “millions of pounds of plastics” from its packaging in North America over the coming years “while continuing to enable packaging circularity.”