Packaging

Last updated

August 13, 2026

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Why it matters

To PepsiCo:

PepsiCo's sustainable packaging vision is to help build a world where packaging never becomes waste. We rely on diverse packaging solutions to deliver products to our customers and consumers without compromising food safety or quality. When designed sustainably, packaging solutions can contribute to the creation of a circular value chain and potentially help reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

To the World:

When packaging is disposed of improperly, it may end up as waste in the marine environment or on land, impacting both human health and the health of the environment. This global challenge requires a systemic shift to offer more sustainable options for delivering products to consumers through multi-stakeholder collaboration and active engagement within the value chain.

Approach

Our approach to managing packaging is driven by our pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) packaging strategy, supported by strong governance, careful risk management, ongoing stakeholder engagement and focused policy advocacy.

Governance

A dedicated team led by our Vice President of Sustainable Packaging manages PepsiCo’s sustainable packaging programs. The team reports to the PepsiCo Executive Committee (PEC) through our Chief Sustainability Officer, but partners closely with many internal functions including Global Procurement, Corporate Affairs, R&D, Marketing and our Human Rights Operating Council. Together, the cross-functional team monitors and evaluates packaging challenges, progress and goals on an ongoing basis and shares information for review by our PEC as well as the Sustainability and Public Policy Committee of our Board of Directors on at least an annual basis.

Risk management

To assess potential packaging risks facing the business, PepsiCo completes a comprehensive plastic packaging-related risk assessment across its direct operations twice annually through its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process. This assessment evaluates risks to achieving our pep+ packaging goals, including potential impacts on business operations and corporate reputation. Through the ERM process, we track progress and assess the key risks to delivery, such as end-to-end infrastructure and technical feasibility.

We believe long-term transformation requires agility to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and adjust our approach to focus on areas where we can have the greatest impact. We regularly review our sustainability goals and initiatives and consider changes that are from time to time warranted, including in the context of new developments, such as business growth, necessary investments relating to our initiatives, as well as external developments.

Strategy

Our sustainable packaging vision

PepsiCo’s sustainable packaging vision is to help build a world where packaging never becomes waste. We take a three-pronged approach to realizing our vision:

  • Reducing the amount of packaging we use;
  • Supporting recycling and a circular economy for recycled materials; and
  • Reinventing how we deliver products through exploring low-packaging formats, reuse models and the use of alternative packaging materials such as non-plastic and compostable options.
Reduce: use less packaging

PepsiCo reduces plastics across primary packaging by light-weighting bottles and other packaging materials. The company’s Research and Development teams continue to explore and roll out technologies that improve packaging for snacks products, including pre-settling snacks to enable the use of a smaller bag for the same amount of product and introducing new packaging materials. Reducing plastic packaging also supports PepsiCo’s climate ambition by lowering the amount of virgin fossil fuel based plastic placed on the market.

Recycle: support a circular economy for plastic

Supporting recycling and the circular economy requires action at every phase of the packaging lifecycle. In these efforts, we focus on our key packaging markets – areas where our products are enjoyed most frequently and where relationships in the market enable us to engage effectively.

We aim to design for circularity: working towards primary and secondary packaging that’s reusable, recyclable or compostable by design. To achieve this, we rely on clear design standards for recyclability and work with cross-sector industry groups across markets to align those standards across geographies where possible. Once enjoyed, the packaging from our products should be collected and recycled.

We recognize that, while we cannot change recycling and recovery rates on our own, we can champion improvements to collection and recycling systems. We engage to improve recycling systems through policy and voluntary programs supporting infrastructure, consumer education and stakeholder engagement to increase recycling rates.

Reinvent: improve the packaging and materials that we use

We aim to improve the environmental impact of our packaging by advancing innovations and new technologies.

Using alternative materials

PepsiCo is a member of several consortia, collaborations and working groups that aim to develop and sustainably scale innovative packaging solutions, including fiber- and paper-based materials and plastics from non-food, plant-based sources and compostable options.

Scaling alternative formats

We are expanding our offerings of powders and concentrates for our beverage portfolio, which enable consumers to make their own drinks at home or on-the-go without the need for single-use bottles.

Pursuing reuse models

We are continuing to reinvent our offerings to deliver high-quality drinks through reusable formats. These models aim to help us decouple business growth from virgin plastic use and, over time, may decrease GHG emissions. Informed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s reuse framework, we are pursuing multiple approaches to scale reuse, including:

  • Expanding SodaStream®;
  • Building out our returnable plastic and glass bottle offerings in collaboration with PepsiCo bottlers; and
  • Driving adoption of reusable cups for our fountain drinks.

Policy advocacy

PepsiCo recognizes the value that public-private partnerships and policy can bring to improve waste management and promote efficient use of resources. Across our operations, we navigate diverse packaging regulations, market conditions and consumer behaviors. Because each community has unique needs, the company engages stakeholders at the local, national and global level.

PepsiCo views proactive and constructive engagement in policy discussions as essential. The company supports broad-based policy proposals that deliver positive environmental outcomes, incentivize sustainability and allow industry participants to contribute to program design and implementation. PepsiCo’s vision for packaging sustainability requires action and investment from all stakeholders including participants across the packaging value chain, local, state and national governments, as well as consumers.

Packaging ESG Infographic

We participate in public policy dialogues to share our expertise on issues that support our business strategy and, where possible, contribute ideas that help our business, consumers and society advance toward a more circular economy. Packaging policy remained one of our key policy issues in 2025. In particular, we engaged in extended producer responsibility (EPR) advocacy and implementation via producer responsibility organizations (PRO) and in global advocacy via the UN Global Plastics Treaty negotiations.

Extended Producer Responsibility

We actively advocate for policies, at global, national and local levels, that promote a circular economy for packaging, including well-designed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs managed by the industry with government oversight. EPR programs extend producers’ responsibility for end-of-life management of products and, when properly designed and funded, can support collection and recycling as well as upstream measures such as design. PepsiCo has extensive experience participating in EPR programs in different parts of the world and uses this experience to provide constructive recommendations when governments pursue or develop these programs.

Our view is that EPR programs function most effectively when key stakeholders provide input, cooperation and funding. We actively engage with industry members to develop useful guidance on best-in-class EPR program design and implementation, including guidance from the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Coalition of Action on Plastic Waste (PWCoA). In 2025, through our position as co-lead of the PWCoA policy group, we contributed to the launch of CGF’s paper on EPR focused on design and implementation of EPR in low- and middle-income countries. We also collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders around the world, including NGOs and other industry actors, to help build understanding of where and how EPR programs may work best. In addition, the company supports the development of new EPR programs, including through its work with Circular Action Alliance in the U.S.

Global Plastics Treaty

PepsiCo is a member of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty and supports a treaty with globally harmonized rules. We believe a treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics, with upstream and downstream measures, can accelerate progress toward a more circular economy, strengthen local economies and help keep plastic out of the environment or achieve a scale that voluntary industry efforts alone could not accomplish. PepsiCo supports the inclusion of elements that address collection/recycling policy, like well-designed EPR grounded in global principles, as well as measures to enhance design and sustainability of plastics, like harmonized design principles, as part of a future agreement.

We recognize that advancing more sustainable packaging solutions is complex and requires collaboration among national, state and local governments, the private sector, NGOs and other partners. Effective and well-designed policy, paired with cross-sector collaboration, can help drive the transition to a circular economy. PepsiCo supports global action and works to be part of the solution.

Stakeholder engagement

We engage with stakeholders across the full packaging value chain to advance circularity, strengthen recycling and collection infrastructure and improve the environmental performance of our packaging portfolio. Our approach brings together suppliers, customers, recyclers, industry associations, civil society partners and policymakers to address shared challenges and accelerate system change.

We recognize that markets operate at different levels of circular economy readiness and tailor our engagement to local conditions. This includes markets with dominant informal waste sectors and limited waste management policies as well as markets with mature collection systems with advanced technologies. In all markets, we focus on infrastructure needs, well-designed policy landscapes and consumer behaviors that influence packaging recovery. In markets with advanced circularity practices, we work with partners to scale reuse, expand recycled content supply and strengthen high-quality recycling systems. In markets earlier in their journey towards circularity, we support efforts to build foundational collection and recycling infrastructure, encourage policy development and expand consumer awareness.

PepsiCo works through ongoing dialogue and collaboration to advance solutions that reduce packaging waste, increase material circulation and support a resilient circular economy in key packaging markets.

Progress

Metrics and targets

PepsiCo’s packaging strategy (outlined above) is guided by a series of goals that outline the progress we aim to make. Our packaging goals — updated in 2025 — focus on the key packaging markets where we believe our efforts can make the most positive impact and better account for external factors outside of the company’s control.


Progress
Goals 2025 2024 2023
For our primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets, our goals are: Achieve an average of 2% year-over-year reduction in our absolute tonnage of virgin plastics through 2030 6%1 5%1 Goal refined in 2025.
Use 40% or greater recycled content in our plastic packaging by 2035 or sooner 18%1 15%1 Goal refined in 2025.
Achieve 97% or greater reusable, recyclable, or compostable (RRC) packaging by design by 2030 in our primary and secondary packaging in our key packaging markets 94%1 94%2 Goal refined in 2025.
Develop and support innovation, in collaboration with our partners and external organizations, of new packaging material technologies and solutions Our actions include:
  • Continuing to convert all PepsiCo beverage brands to 100% rPET in Poland; and
  • Transitioning flexible packaging for Lay’s®, Cheetos® and Hrusteam® in Russia to monomaterial packaging.
Invest to increase recycling rates in our key packaging markets Our actions include:

Collaborating with the San Francisco 49ers to introduce reusable cups at Levi’s® Stadium in the United Club and Graton Winner’s Club for all home games in the full 2025-26 season, including Super Bowl LX; and

Helping to launch the Flexible Plastics Fund's Flex Collect report in the British Parliament.

In 2025, we used 2.0 million metric tons of plastic in our key packaging markets, including primary and secondary packaging.

ESG Image assets

PepsiCo publicly discloses key packaging metrics and progress towards our goals. In addition to the information about our packaging strategy and progress covered here, we report annually through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment Progress Reports.

Actions

We drove progress toward our targets across our value chain in 2025, working internally and with external stakeholders to help progress toward our vision for a world where packaging never becomes waste.

Reduce: reduce the plastic that we use

Within our convenient foods business, we are implementing new technology to change the way we package our foods. In 2025, we converted chip multipacks from plastic overwraps to paper boxes for select brands in Australia, including Smiths Crinkly Cut®, Parker's®, Twisties®, Doritos®, and Cheetos®. Across our North America beverage portfolio we reduced our plastic footprint by over 7 million pounds through bottle lightweighting, including Gatorade and Lipton.

Recycle: support a circular economy for plastic

Designing for circularity

We continued work to design RRC products across the globe during the year, including by:

  • Eliminating PVC liners from Sting® glass bottle caps in Vietnam;
  • Converting Lipton® bottles to floatable, recycling-compliant labels from non-recyclable shrink sleeves in France; and
  • Transitioning flexible packaging for Lay’s®, Cheetos® and Hrusteam® in Russia to monomaterial packaging.

While we work to phase out materials that are challenging in the recycling process, we continue searching for solutions to improve the recyclability of flexible foods packaging and to increase consumer access to recycling.

Incorporating recycled materials

In all, more than 40 markets had at least one PepsiCo product with rPET in its packaging in 2025. Efforts contributing to this progress include:

  • Beginning to transition all PepsiCo beverage brands to 100% rPET in Poland by the end of 2025;
  • Continuing to incorporate 50% recycled polypropylene in Sunbites® packaging in the U.K. using a mass-balance approach.
Supporting recycling systems

We aim to drive progress toward a more circular economy by working to strengthen collection, recycling and composting systems. We work with industry participants across the value chain as we explore opportunities to enhance outcomes in formal and informal recycling economies.

In the U.K., we helped launch the Flexible Plastics Fund’s FlexCollect report in the British Parliament. FlexCollect is the UK’s largest flexible plastic collection pilot. The report’s findings—highlighting strong public support, high-quality material recovery, and minimal disruption to recycling operations—offer a blueprint for nationwide implementation ahead of the UK’s 2027 Simpler Recycling reforms.

As we work to support recycling systems, we also strive to promote a safe and inclusive waste management system for those working informally in the waste sector. The informal waste sector exists across the globe, filling the gap where municipal collection and recycling systems are lacking.

In 2025, we continued our work with the Fair Circularity Initiative (FCI), launched in 2022, alongside peers and NGOs to support a set of principles that guide corporate engagement with the informal waste sector and aim to advance a fairer circular economy. As such, we continue to support advocacy efforts to include informal waste workers in waste management policy (including EPR). Together with the FCI and Consumer Goods Forum, we contributed to a newly published paper on EPR in low- and middle income countries to provide policy guidance including on how to better integrate the informal sector.

Reinvent: improve the packaging and plastic that we use

We are continuing to grow our portfolio of alternative materials in our convenient foods portfolio and “beyond the bottle” models for our beverages.

Alternative materials

In Australia, we moved to recyclable cardboard outer packaging for select key multipack brands. This initiative addresses consumer interest in for more easily recyclable packaging and more units per multipack, with the outer packaging compatible with curbside recycling programs in Australia. The multipack cardboard boxes for select key brands were first launched into the Australian market in April 2025 and will be widely available at retail.

We continue to collaborate with forward‑thinking innovators like Pulpex, helping turn bold ideas into meaningful, consumer‑led sustainable packaging solutions.

Reuse

Reuse models used in our beverages business include, but are not limited to, SodaStream®, fountain beverages delivered in reusable containers, multi-serve powder formulations of our beverages and returnable glass and plastic bottles sold to customers.

PepsiCo is collaborating with industry and value chain members to identify reuse solutions and advocate for smart policies. We continued engagement with the Closed Loop Partners NextGen Cup Consortium, a multi-year industry-led group working to accelerate learnings and action on reusable cups in food service.

In 2025, we collaborated with the San Francisco 49ers to introduce reusable cups at Levi’s® Stadium in the United Club and Graton Winner’s Club for all home games in the full 2025-26 season, including Super Bowl LX. Over the course of the season, this prevented more than 32,000 single-use cups from ending up in landfills.

Reinvent: improve the packaging and plastic that we use

We are continuing to grow our portfolio of alternative materials in our convenient foods portfolio and “beyond the bottle” models for our beverages.

Alternative materials

In Australia, we moved to recyclable cardboard outer packaging for select key multipack brands. This initiative addresses consumer interest in for more easily recyclable packaging and more units per multipack, with the outer packaging compatible with curbside recycling programs in Australia. The multipack cardboard boxes for select key brands were first launched into the Australian market in April 2025 and will be widely available at retail.

We continue to collaborate with forward‑thinking innovators like Pulpex, helping turn bold ideas into meaningful, consumer‑led sustainable packaging solutions.

Reuse

Reuse models used in our beverages business include, but are not limited to, SodaStream®, fountain beverages delivered in reusable containers, multi-serve powder formulations of our beverages and returnable glass and plastic bottles sold to customers.

PepsiCo is collaborating with industry and value chain members to identify reuse solutions and advocate for smart policies. We continued engagement with the Closed Loop Partners NextGen Cup Consortium, a multi-year industry-led group working to accelerate learnings and action on reusable cups in food service.

In 2025, we collaborated with the San Francisco 49ers to introduce reusable cups at Levi’s® Stadium in the United Club and Graton Winner’s Club for all home games in the full 2025-26 season, including Super Bowl LX. Over the course of the season, this prevented more than 32,000 single-use cups from ending up in landfills.

Challenges

The challenges in this journey are significant and complex, and we are facing global and systemic obstacles along the way. We know that no one company or industry can create a circular economy on its own. Sustainably managing our packaging requires comprehensive solutions, many of which are complex and hinge on significant systemic transformations such as improved infrastructure, policy or consumer engagement. We are working together with our stakeholders, including governments, NGOs, suppliers, customers, peer companies, consumers and more to find scalable solutions. To achieve these transformations, multi-stakeholder and cross value chain collaboration and action-oriented engagements within the packaging value chain are needed. This will not only help us, but also further help build a circular economy for packaging that benefits us all.

Challenges that we face in working towards our packaging ambitions include:

  • Significant markets, including China, do not currently allow recycled materials in food-grade packages, which creates obstacles to reducing virgin plastic use and increasing recycled content.
  • Inadequate infrastructure and low recycling rates in some regions hinder collection and recycling of packaging and increase the likelihood of packaging leaking into the environment. Broader systemic changes in technology and infrastructure are necessary to support the circularity of flexible film packaging.
  • Competition for the limited supply of high-quality recycled materials makes it difficult to meet our demand for recycled content in our plastic packaging.

Strategic collaborations

Sustainable packaging transformation requires collaboration and comprehensive solutions across the entire value chain. To this end, PepsiCo engages in a variety of programs and initiatives that aim to bring stakeholders together in an effort to share learnings and create broad solutions in order to shift the system in a more sustainable direction. We develop collaborative relationships within and across all three of our pillars: reduce, recycle and reinvent. Due to the breadth of our global, regional and local relationships, we cannot list every initiative in all markets; below are representative samples of our work and commitment to collaboration.

  • ECOCE: PepsiCo funds this Mexico-based non-profit consortium that aims to drive higher collection and recycling rates for post-consumer packaging and expand recovery for materials including PET and flexible films.
  • Every Bottle Back: PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company and Keurig Dr Pepper work through the American Beverage Association to direct nearly half a billion dollars toward modernizing U.S. recycling infrastructure and educating consumers on the value of 100% recyclable plastic bottles.
  • CEFLEX: PepsiCo works with European partners across the flexible packaging value chain to redesign systems and move flexible packaging into the circular economy.
  • Closed Loop Partners: PepsiCo helped establish the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund and has supported circular supply chains through the Local Recycling Fund, which expands modular recycling access and increases supply of rPET and other materials. PepsiCo also co-founded the Closed Loop Composting Consortium to develop infrastructure for compostable packaging.
  • The Recycling Partnership: PepsiCo has supported TRP since 2016 to strengthen U.S. recycling through public-private partnerships that expand collection, improve consumer education and advance recycling policy.
  • WE CARE: PepsiCo and industry partners created this India-based pilot that demonstrated the feasibility of collective recovery, segregation and use of multilayer packaging waste for energy, cement kiln co-processing and fiberboard production.
  • LatitudR: PepsiCo Latin America works with IDB, AVINA, recycler associations and industry peers to build inclusive recycling systems across 14 countries, supporting improved working conditions and circular economy development.
  • Pulpex Limited: PepsiCo works with global partners to develop and scale a recyclable paper bottle for beverages, advancing solutions to technical challenges such as product shelf life.
  • Closed Loop Partners – NextGen Cup Consortium: PepsiCo supports pre-competitive work that advances design, commercialization and recovery pathways for alternatives to single-use foodservice cups.
  • GRAC Program: Vietnam Foods completed Phase 1 of Green Points, an education and community-based initiative in partnership with waste aggregator GRAC, a past cohort of the Greenhouse Accelerator program. Over the past year, the program has engaged more than 5,000 people through seminars, workshops and waste exchange events, resulting in 19 tons of recyclable material collected. In 2026, the program will expand by establishing additional Green Points in residential apartments, supporting informal waste workers’ livelihoods and enabling the recovery of post-consumer plastics.

Cross-cutting partnerships:

  • Consumer Goods Forum: PepsiCo participates in this global network of retailers and manufacturers that seeks to drive collaborative action to address issues such as plastic waste.
  • Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF): PepsiCo shares EMF’s vision of collaborative action and collective advocacy to combat the challenges posed by plastic waste. We are pleased to continue collaboration with EMF to work toward that shared vision in line with our broader pep+ ambitions and in connection with EMF’s 2030 Global Commitment.
  • Fair Circularity Initiative: PepsiCo helped launch this collaboration that promotes respect for human rights in the informal waste sector and elevates the sector’s role in circular value chains.
  • Circulate Capital: The PepsiCo Foundation launched the Ocean Fund as founding investor to support waste collection and processing solutions in South and Southeast Asia; the fund now manages $165 million and focuses on reducing ocean plastic.
  • The Circulate Initiative: In 2025, we joined the Circulate Initiative’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative, a multi-year global program focused on uplifting informal waste workers and delivering responsibly sourced plastics while addressing the most pressing human rights issues in plastics recycling value chains. Our efforts include working with Indian recycling company Deluxe Recycling with an aim to improve the working conditions of informal waste workers in India and tackle multi-layer plastics and used beverage cartons waste streams.

What's next?

PepsiCo is looking to advance several key initiatives:

  • Infrastructure: We plan to continue our work to support collection, sortation and recycling infrastructure in key packaging markets, explore opportunities to empower waste collectors and support the implementation of new EPR programs.
  • Relationships: We plan to continue to build coalitions and collaborate in support of improved collection practices, material development consortia and smart policies that enable the circular use of materials and build relationships to empower our consumers to make sustainable choices through education.
  • Alternative materials: We are continuing to develop the supply chain to bring compostable, renewable and paper-based materials and recyclable packaging solutions to scale.
  • Design: We are exploring scalable technologies that allow us to reduce the volume of virgin plastic in our packaging, while continuing to design for improved recyclability of our materials.
  • Advocacy: Through the UN treaty to end plastic pollution negotiations, we plan to continue to advocate for supportive policy solutions and effective global rules aimed to drive towards circularity. Additionally, at the national level, we continue to advocate for well-designed EPR programs and engage in dialogue with policymakers on our experience from participating in EPR to shape program design and implementation efforts.

1See Calculation Methodology for detail on how we measure progress on this metric. Metric published August 13, 2026

22024 result adjusted to reflect the availability of improved data. See Calculation Methodology for detail on how we measure progress on this metric. Metric published August 13, 2026

Calculation Methodology

Target metric

For our primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets, achieve an average of 2% year-over-year reduction in our absolute tonnage of virgin plastics through 2030

How we measure

Assurance: Subjected to third-party limited assurance

Boundary: Primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets for PepsiCo-owned brands produced by PepsiCo-owned manufacturing operations, franchise bottlers and all JVs with 50% or more ownership where PepsiCo has control over the packaging specifications

Exclusions: Secondary and tertiary packaging

Baseline: Prior year

Restatement from prior year(s): Not applicable

This metric is calculated by subtracting total virgin plastic volume in the previous year (in metric tons) from virgin plastics volume in the current year (in metric tons). The resulting figure is then measured against the virgin plastic in the prior year to determine the year-over-year percent change. The average of all years in the target period will be calculated and assessed as of the end of 2030.

Goal tracks primary plastic packaging in PepsiCo’s key packaging markets. This scope represented more than 80% of PepsiCo’s global plastic packaging footprint (by weight) in 2024, when the goal was announced. Key packaging markets will be reassessed periodically.

Primary packaging is packaging that encapsulates the main product, including containers, closures and labels.

Target metric

For our primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets, use 40% or greater recycled content in our plastic packaging by 2035 or sooner

How we measure

Assurance: Subjected to third-party limited assurance

Boundary: Primary plastic packaging in key packaging markets for PepsiCo-owned brands produced by PepsiCo-owned manufacturing operations, franchise bottlers and all JVs with 50% or more ownership where PepsiCo has control over the packaging specifications

Exclusions: Secondary and tertiary packaging plastic categories

Baseline: None

Restatement from prior year(s): Not applicable

This metric expresses the ratio of recycled plastic volume (in metric tons) to the total volume of plastic (in metric tons) used in our primary plastic packaging.

Goal tracks primary plastic packaging in PepsiCo’s key packaging markets. This scope represented more than 80% of PepsiCo’s global plastic packaging footprint (by weight) in 2024, when the goal was announced. Key packaging markets will be reassessed periodically.

Primary packaging is the first layer of packaging that is in direct contact with the product and is intended to protect and contain it (e.g., bottles, cans, chip bags, BIB flex, etc.). Primary packaging includes labels and closures.

For certain types of recycling where physical traceability is not feasible (e.g., chemical recycling processes) a mass balance approach may be employed in reporting progress against this goal.

Target metric

Achieve 97% or greater reusable, recyclable, or compostable (RRC) packaging by design by 2030 in our primary and secondary packaging in our key packaging markets

How we measure

Assurance: Subjected to third-party limited assurance

Boundary: Primary and secondary packaging in key packaging markets for PepsiCo-owned brands produced by PepsiCo-owned manufacturing operations, franchise bottlers and all JVs with 50% or more ownership where PepsiCo has control over the packaging specifications

Exclusions: Tertiary packaging. Requirements exclude end-of-life considerations

Baseline: None

Restatement from prior year(s): 2024 result adjusted to reflect the availability of improved data

This metric tracks the percent of packaging by weight (in metric tons) that is designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable (RRC).

Our RRC definitions consider guidance from, among others:

  • Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF)
  • U.S. Federal Trade Commission Green Guides
  • Association of Plastics Recyclers
  • European PET Bottle Platform
  • Consumer Goods Forum Golden Design Rules
  • CEFLEX (Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging) [Europe]

In order for packaging material to be considered RRC, it must be designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. For example, specific packaging material components may be identified as either recyclable or non-recyclable based on global guidance for non-recyclable materials. Reusable packaging must also be designed to be recyclable or compostable.

Goal tracks primary and secondary packaging in PepsiCo’s key packaging markets. This scope represented more than 85% of PepsiCo’s global packaging footprint (by weight) in 2024, when the goal was announced. Key packaging markets will be reassessed periodically.

Primary packaging is the first layer of packaging that is in direct contact with the product and contains it (e.g., bottles, cans, chip bags, BIB flex, etc.). Primary packaging includes labels and closures. Secondary packaging is the second layer of packaging that groups and protects individually wrapped products in primary packaging (e.g., shrink wrap, hi-cone for multipacks, corrugate, BIB corrugate, etc.). Secondary packaging is used to make it easier to transport, store, and handle products, and is often consumer-facing.

Target metric

Develop and support innovation, in collaboration with our partners and external organizations, of new packaging material technologies and solutions

How we measure

Assurance, boundary, exclusions, baseline and restatements are not applicable for this metric. This metric is measured through qualitative information from various initiatives.

Target metric

Invest to increase recycling rates in our key packaging markets

How we measure

Assurance, boundary, exclusions, baseline and restatements are not applicable for this metric. This metric is measured through qualitative information from various initiatives.

Target metric

Invest to increase recycling rates in our key packaging markets

How we measure

Assurance, boundary, exclusions, baseline and restatements are not applicable for this metric. This metric is measured through qualitative information from various initiatives.

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