PepsiCo, Evian Develop Eco-Friendly Bottles

PepsiCo (Purchase, NY) announced last week that the company has developed what it says is the world’s first PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle made entirely from plant-based materials. Using materials like switch grass, pine bark, and corn husks, PepsiCo’s environmentally-friendly bottle ups Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle, a PET-based bottle of 30% plant-based materials, which the company introduced in 2009.

PepsiCo plans to initiate pilot production of its PET bottle in 2012 and, if successful, will move to full-scale commercialization. In the future, the company hopes to develop environmentally friendly bottles from even more agricultural byproducts, including orange peels, potato peels, and oat hulls.

"PepsiCo is in a unique position, as one of the world's largest food and beverage businesses, to ultimately source agricultural byproducts from our foods business to manufacture a more environmentally-preferable bottle for our beverages business-a sustainable business model that we believe brings to life the essence of Performance with Purpose," said PepsiCo CEO and chairman Indra Nooyi.

In other eco-friendly bottling news, Danone Waters of America Inc. (White Plans, NY) has developed a reduced-carbon evian water bottle. The 1.5 L bottle is made of 50% recycled PET and 11% less plastic. The initiative is part of evian’s overall goal to reduce carbon emissions by 40% from 2008 to 2011.