[GreenYes] Pepsi

["Bill Sheehan" <zerowaste@grrn.org>]

NOTE:   GRRN wrote to PepsiCo CEO Steven Reinemund

on January 28th, suggesting that Pepsi needed to

follow Coke's lead.  This story describes the response.

Thanks to all of you who have written email letters

from the GRRN web site (www.grrn.org/pepsi/index.html).



/Bill Sheehan



Plastics News*

February 22, 2001



PEPSI TO BOOST RECYCLED PET CONTENT BY 2005



By Steve Toloken



PURCHASE, N.Y. (Feb. 22, 1:45 p.m. EST) --

Pepsi-Cola Co. now plans to use 10 percent

recycled content in its PET bottles by 2005, a

significant step that comes after archrival

Coca-Cola Co. announced similar plans last

year.



The plan, announced quietly to bottlers and a

few shareholders in letters dated Feb. 19 and

Feb. 20, says that the company "will be working

towards a new goal of 10 percent recycled

content" in PET containers in Pepsi´s system in

the United States by 2005.



A Pepsi spokesman said he was not sure what

technologies the company will use, and he

declined to say how the company would get to 10

percent.



Environmental groups and shareholders that have

been pressuring the company to use 25 percent

recycled content welcomed the move, but said

they wanted more details. The GrassRoots

Recycling Network said that Pepsi committed to

25 percent recycled content in 1990 and then

"proceeded to blow that off."



A Pepsi letter to a group of investment firms

that tout themselves as being socially

responsible said the company would begin using

recycled plastic in its bottles this year.



"We know that it is technically and

economically feasible to produce a food-grade

container made with 10 percent recycled

content, so we believe achieving that rate is a

reasonable action," according to a Feb. 19

letter Pepsi sent to Ken Scott, portfolio

manager and social research analyst for Walden

Asset Management in Boston.



A Feb. 20 letter from Gary Rodkin, Pepsi-Cola

North America president and chief executive

officer, to its bottlers said that the company

has a goal of 10 percent recycled PET in

bottles.



"We currently use recycled content in both

aluminum and glass containers, so it makes

sense that we explore the potential of using

recycled content in our growing line of plastic

bottles," Rodkin wrote.



Coke said recently that it is now using 10

percent recycled content in three of every four

bottles in North America.



Pepsi spokesman Larry Jabbonsky said the

company´s "commitment has been there all along"

to use recycled PET and that technological

developments on several fronts, including

collection and manufacturing, now make it

possible.



Pepsi´s new plan will not apply to containers

for products outside the Pepsi bottling system,

like Tropicana, Jabbonsky said.



Pepsi´s Gatorade brand has been using recycled

content for several years. A Jan. 29 GRRN

letter to Pepsi noted that "rumors are swirling

in the recycling industry" that Pepsi is no

longer specifying recycled content in Gatorade

bottles.



But a spokesman for Pepsi subsidiary Quaker

Oats said that the company has not changed the

level of recycled content in Gatorade bottles

and has "no plans at this time to change."



*********

Displayed with Permission of Plastics News,

copyright Crain Communications, Inc.

Originally published in Plastics News

(www.plasticsnews.com) February 22, 2001.


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