PepsiCo Europe (Geneva, Switzerland; www.pepsico.com) announced that by 2030, it plans to eliminate the use of virgin fossil-based plastics in all of its crisp and chip packaging bags, and instead use 100% recycled or renewable plastics in its packets. The announcement follows the introduction of the company’s PepsiCo Positive sustainability initiative. The recycled content in the packaging will be derived from previously used plastics, says the company, while the renewable content is expected to come from byproducts of plants such as used cooking oil or waste from paper pulp.

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Consumer trials of the snack packaging will begin in European markets in 2022, starting in France in the first half of the year with PepsiCo’s Lay’s product range. Recycled content packaging trials will commence in the UK later in this year with the company’s Walkers product brand. PepsiCo estimates up to 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of packaging material from switching to renewable and recycled content. Packaging specialist Amcor (Hawthorn, Australia; www.amcor.com) is PepsiCo’s flexible packaging partner in Europe.

Meanwhile, PepsiCo Beverages North America (Purchase, New York) announced it will invest USD 35 mn (EUR 31.4 mn) with investment company Closed Loop Partners (New York, New York; www.closedlooppartners.com) to increase recycling in areas in the US with limited or no access to recycling. Closed Loop Partners created the Closed Loop Local Recycling Fund with the investment, through which new, small-scale modular materials recovery facilities (MRF) will be deployed in communities that lack access to larger municipal MRFs. Each modular system has the capacity to process at least 8,000 t/y of recyclables such as paper, plastics, glass and metals, including keeping 400 t of rPET in circulation every year.