PepsiCo eliminates 20% reusable packaging target for 2030; Break Free From Plastic condemns decision as move follows Coca-Cola's December 2024 target reduction

On May 22, PepsiCo, one of the world’s major plastic polluters, announced that it will be eliminating its reusable packaging targets of delivering 20% of its beverages in reusable containers by 2030, while significantly dropping its goals to reduce virgin (new) plastic and recycled content. PepsiCo’s announcement follows a similar move made by top polluter Coca-Cola in December 2024.

BFFP members react to the announcement:

Greenpeace USA Senior Oceans Campaigner Lisa Ramsden, said:

“PepsiCo is the latest corporate polluter to abandon its reuse targets, a move that will undoubtedly force more plastic pollution into our environment and burden our bodies with more toxic microplastics. We clearly can’t trust corporations like PepsiCo to do what’s best for people and the planet, and this exemplifies why voluntary commitments by corporations have never been enough. We need a strong and binding Global Plastics Treaty that caps plastic production and ends single-use plastics.”

Dianna Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO, Plastic Pollution Coalition, said:

“It is urgent and necessary that companies expand non-toxic reusable, plastic-free packaging and refill systems while eliminating plastic and other wasteful single-use packaging. As one of the world’s most egregious plastic polluters, PepsiCo is shifting its goalposts in the wrong direction. More plastic ‘recycling’ won’t help solve plastic pollution, nor will switching to single-use bioplastics: the answer is less plastic and less single-use of all kinds, not more.

When PepsiCo launched more than 100 years ago, its flagship beverage was initially sold in glass bottles filled locally and as syrups mixed on the spot at soda fountains. The company began using single-use aluminum cans in the 1950s and single-use plastic bottles in the 1970s. Similarly, its earliest foods and snacks were sold in cardboard and wax paper. PepsiCo knows how to eliminate plastic because it has already proven it can sell products in plastic-free packaging.”

Matt Littlejohn, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. OCEANA, said:  

“By killing its reuse goal, and other goals that would actually reduce plastic packaging, Pepsi is hurting our oceans and the environment. Pepsi is one of the largest polluters in the world according to the Break Free from Plastic Brand Audit and has a responsibility to address its plastic problem.”

“The best way for Pepsi to reduce plastic pollution is not by abandoning goals but by dramatically increasing the use of refillable bottles – which can be used up to 50 times if made of glass. Just a 10% increase in reusable beverage packaging by 2030 can eliminate the need for over 1 trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups and could prevent 153 billion of these containers from getting into the world’s oceans and waterways.”

“Pepsi’s customers, employees, investors, and government officials who are concerned about the impact of plastics on our planet and health, should hold the company accountable. This should include pushing the company to reduce products sold in single-use plastic packaging, increase products sold in reusable packaging, and to report on the share of products sold in reusable formats.”