[GreenYes] RELEASE: Pepsi Broke Recycling Promise

["Bill Sheehan" <bill_sheehan@mindspring.com>]

NEWS RELEASE
April 27, 2001

Contact:  Lance King (703) 536-7282
Bill Sheehan (706) 613-7121

PEPSI 'BROKE RECYCLING PROMISE',
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS CLAIM

Shareholder Resolution Focuses Attention on 
Pepsi's Bottle and Can Waste

ATLANTA, GA (April 27, 2001)  - PepsiCo 
Inc. (Ticker: PEP) broke its 1990 promise to make 
soda bottles with 25 percent recycled plastic and the 
company has spent millions of dollars lobbying 
against recycling legislation, environmental leaders 
said today. 

"More than 1.6 million Pepsi soda bottles and 
cans are thrown away every hour in the United 
States.  In one day, more than 40 million Pepsi soft 
drink containers become litter or get sent to landfills 
and incinerators," said Bill Sheehan, national 
network coordinator for the Athens, Georgia-based 
GrassRoots Recycling Network.

"It's time for Pepsi to take responsibility for 
wasting billions of beverage containers each year.  
We urge Pepsi shareholders to vote for the recycling 
proposal, proxy item Number 6, at the annual 
shareholder meeting in Dallas, Texas on May 2," 
Sheehan said.

PepsiCo is the nation's second largest 
beverage maker.  PepsiCo shareholders can vote via 
the Internet for the recycling proposal by going to 
the GrassRoots Recycling Network web site, at 
www.grrn.org.

"We have targeted Pepsi for several reasons.  
First, because Pepsi broke its 1990 promise to use 
recycled plastic in making new soda bottles. 
Second, because the company increasingly relies on 
throwaway plastic bottles, and three out of four end 
up in landfills or incinerators.  Third, because Pepsi 
has spent millions of dollars to defeat the most 
effective beverage container recycling laws in the 
nation - bottle bills," said Lance King, a spokesman 
for environmental groups supporting the 
shareholder resolution.

Walden Asset Management of Boston, and 
Domini Social Investments of New York, which 
together own $20 million worth of PepsiCo stock, 
submitted the shareholder resolution.  The non-
binding resolution calls for PepsiCo to meet two 
specific recycling goals by January 1, 2005:

  * Make Pepsi plastic bottles with 25 percent 
recycled plastic; and
  * Achieve an 80 percent national recycling 
rate for bottles and cans.

The PepsiCo recycling resolution is similar to 
one introduced at the April 18 Coke shareholder 
meeting.  That proposal received 5.2% 'Yes" votes, 
representing 88.9 million shares worth more than $4 
billion.

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola both promised in 
1990 to use 25% recycled plastic in their plastic 
bottles.  Coke recently started using a small amount 
of recycled plastic in the United States, and CEO 
Doug Daft announced at the April 18 meeting that 
Coke has set a 10% recycled content goal by 2005 
for their plastic bottles.  

Environmental groups led by the GrassRoots 
Recycling Network have waged a four-year 
campaign targeting Coca-Cola to take responsibility 
for rising beverage container waste and declining 
recycling rates.  

"Coke has been the focus of our campaign 
because they are the market leader, with 44% of the 
U.S. soft drink market.  Pepsi, with 31% market 
share, has done nothing.  Pepsi has gotten a free 
ride.  But that is about to change," said Sheehan.

 "Plastics are now the largest portion of 
beverage container waste in the United States.," Pat 
Franklin, executive director of the Arlington, 
Virginia-based Container Recycling Institute said.  
"Beverage container waste increased more than 50 
percent from 1992 to 1999.  Pepsi is a big part of 
the problem."

 "Pepsi needs to take responsibility for its 
bottle and can waste.  Throwing away billions of 
bottles and cans every year burdens local 
government and taxpayers with clean-up costs, 
pollutes the environment, and squanders valuable 
energy needed to make new containers from virgin 
resources," Franklin said.

"The shareholder resolutions set realistic 
goals, based on actual experience.  Plastic soda 
bottles are made with 25 percent recycled plastic in 
several countries, including Australia, Switzerland 
and Sweden.  Coke has started using recycled 
plastic again in the United States, while Pepsi shirks 
its responsibility," Bob Woodall, executive director 
of Atlanta, Georgia-based Waste Not Georgia, said.

"Ten states across America already achieve an 
80 percent recycling rate for bottles and cans by 
requiring a refundable deposit on beverage 
containers.  The key to increase recycling on a 
national basis is providing appropriate financial 
incentives," Woodall said.

PepsiCo's recent acquisition of Gatorade 
brand, the sports drink leader, is both good news 
and bad news from a recycling perspective.  
"Gatorade reportedly uses some recycled plastic in 
making its bottles.  However, more than 80 percent 
of Gatorade plastic bottles get thrown away, 
because only 2 states require a refundable deposit 
on this type of beverage," Sheehan said.  "Non-
carbonated drinks, like teas, sports drinks and water, 
are the fastest growing portion of the beverage 
market, and the fastest growing contributor to 
beverage container waste."     

###

More information is at www.grrn.org/media