Image: Teslariu Mihai via Unsplash
PepsiCo has abandoned its goal to make 20% of its beverage packaging reusable by 2030, marking a broader retreat from its key sustainability targets, Plastics Today reported.
The company’s reuse rate has remained flat at 10% since 2022. It also confirmed that it would no longer pursue reductions in virgin plastic use per serving, instead focusing on improving packaging life cycles in select markets.
According to data submitted to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, PepsiCo’s virgin plastic use has actually increased – from 2.18 million tonnes in 2020 to 2.3 million in 2023.
The environmental group Oceana criticised the move, calling it a setback for ocean health. Matt Littlejohn, the group’s senior vice president, noted that even a 10% boost in refillable packaging could eliminate over a trillion single-use containers and keep 153 billion out of oceans and waterways.
The move mirrors similar shifts at Coca-Cola, which also revised its sustainability goals in late 2024. The company lowered its target for recycled content in packaging from 50% by 2030 to 35%–40% and reduced its recycled plastic goal from 35% to 30% by 2035. Coca-Cola also scrapped its earlier commitment to make 25% of its global beverage packaging refillable by 2030, now offering only vague investment promises tied to markets with existing infrastructure.
Coca-Cola’s collection pledge has been softened as well: instead of recovering one bottle or can for every unit sold, the company now targets a 70%–75% recovery rate. Its 2025 goal to make all packaging recyclable has quietly been delayed, with Coca-Cola now claiming that 95% of its packaging is recyclable.
Both companies now face legal scrutiny. In early 2025, the US Virgin Islands government filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, accusing them of contributing to the territory’s mounting plastic waste crisis. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of St. Croix, also alleges that the companies misled consumers by branding single-use bottles as an ‘environmentally responsible choice’. With landfill space projected to run out by 2028, the islands face limited and costly waste management options.