What’s going on here?

PepsiCo on Thursday said it’s testing sales of its Aquafina water in aluminum cans as the company moves to reduce its use of virgin plastic, which hasn’t been recycled.

Though being a relatively new trend in retail, PepsiCo isn’t the first; earlier this month, the makers of Vita Coco launched its canned water Ever & Ever.

What does that mean?

• PepsiCo isn’t stopping at aluminum packaging. Not only will its canned Aquafina be sold but
  • its LIFEWTR brand will also be packaged in 100% recycled plastic
  • its Bubly sparkling water will no longer be in plastic bottles.

The saying numbers

• Saying the changes will all go into effect in 2020, PepsiCo predicts the move will:
  • eliminate more than 8,000 metric tons of new plastic;
  • eliminate about 11,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions;
  • start the plan of using 25% recycled plastic in its all of its packaging by 2025.
• According to data from Euromonitor International,
  • 480 billion plastic bottles were sold in 2016;
  • less than half collected for recycling and only 7% converted into new bottles.

How others are reacting

• The company’s rival Coca-Cola (producing 23% of plastic bottles sold in 2016), also
  • said it is working to recycle 75% of the bottles it sells by 2020.
  • announced its investments in two recycling technologies that will let its packaging of recycled plastics more efficient.
• Last year, Starbucks announced its plans to
  • phase out plastic straws by 2020
  • start trials for recyclable and compostable cups.
• McDonald’s too began phasing out plastic straws in U.K. and Ireland last year.

Further concerns

• Is the production process of aluminum cans more environmental-friendly than that of plastic bottles?
• Is the disposal of aluminum faster and greener than that of plastic?

Content source: Turner. A. (2019) Crack open a cold one: PepsiCo testing canned water as it tries to cut down use of virgin plastic. CNBC. Available from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/27/pepsico-tests-selling-canned-water-as-it-looks-to-cut-down-on-plastic.html [Accessed 29 June 2019]