Pepsi to Cut Plastic Used in Bottles: Attempt Is Latest To Reduce Impact On Environment BETSY MCKAY / Wall Street Journal 6may2008

Pepsi to Cut Plastic Used in Bottles

Attempt Is Latest To Reduce Impact On Environment

BETSY MCKAY / Wall Street Journal 6may2008

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A note from Paul Goettlich:

Pepsi gains a substantial savings as the price of plastic has been increasing rapidly. And we do like using less of anything, especially plastic. But this reduction in weight will actually end up penalizing municipal recycling departments. The bottles still take up the same space on a truck while the weight, which is what they get paid for, is reduced. Add to that the fact that incredibly few bottles are recycled at the curb and this really looks like a cost-savings measure on the part of Pepsi. In corporate terms it's a win-win situation. But once again, the burden is externalized onto municipalities and tax payers. If this move were analyzed, the cities might find that the savings by Pepsi could just about equal the addition cost for fuel spent because the recycling trucks fill up more quickly. In other words, there will possibly be a net petroleum use increase when all inputs are accounted for on both sides of the supply chain.

For the plastic industry, one major goal has always been to externalize costs. The chasing arrows recycling symbol was invented by the plastics industry to give consumers the impression that it is OK to use plastic because it is being recycled. Remember the old argument between using paper or plastic? That too was a distraction away from the real issue — an argument about using single-use containers at all. Before this plastic mess, glass bottles were reused — not recycled, but actually cleaned and reused.

Plastic bottles are all toxic
All plastics migrate toxins into whatever they contact. Period. There is no debate on this point from industry. The arguments, if fully disclosed, are all against the use of plastic for any food or drink.

Continued below . . .

PepsiCo Inc. is reducing the amount of plastic it uses in bottles of some non-soda drinks, in the latest move by beverage companies to appeal to consumers concerned about environmental waste and global warming.

The new half-liter (16.9-oz.) bottle contains at least 20% less plastic than the one it is replacing, and it will be used for some versions of Lipton iced tea, Tropicana juice drinks, a flavored water called Aquafina FlavorSplash and an enhanced water known as Aquafina Alive, Pepsi said.

The Purchase, N.Y., company is slimming its half-liter Aquafina water bottle to 13.2 grams from 15 grams, putting it among the lightest water bottles on the U.S. market.

Pepsi, Coca-Cola Co., Nestlé SA and others have been shrinking the weight of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, bottles in recent years as public criticism of plastic bottles has grown. Environmental activists say plastic bottles create waste and increase consumption of oil, the basic ingredient. Last year, Nestlé introduced a 12.5-gram half-liter bottle for its Poland Spring, Deer Park, Ozarka and other brands. Coke has "light-weighted" its Dasani bottle. The moves also help companies reduce costs as they grapple with increased prices of commodities.

Critics call moves to reduce the amount of plastic in beverage bottles welcome but not enough, as they don't address the problem that few plastic bottles are recycled, they say.

Light-weighting bottles for flavored or carbonated beverages is harder because a thick plastic wall is needed to protect ingredients from exposure to oxygen, which reduces shelf life. Soda presents challenges because carbonated drinks need a thick wall to retain the carbon dioxide that creates bubbles.

Pepsi used new technology for thinner walls while keeping bottles structurally sound enough to protect ingredients and strong enough to be stacked and transported, said Robert Lewis, vice president of worldwide packaging innovation and equipment development.

The new bottle contains 18.6 grams of plastic at most, and its label is 10% smaller than the label on the old bottle, Mr. Lewis said. Some producers may be able to make bottles with as little as 15 grams of plastic by shortening the neck for the cap, he added.

Sales of brands to be sold in the slimmed-down bottles amount to about 15% of Pepsi's North American beverage volume, a measure of sales, Pepsi said. While sales of Pepsi's juice drinks and Aquafina Flavor-Splash slid last year, Lipton premium-iced-tea volume rose 55%, and Aquafina volume rose 3%, according to Beverage Digest, an industry publication.

Gigi Kellett, national director of Think Outside the Bottle Campaign for Corporate Accountability International, an organization that urges consumers to drink tap water, said that while reducing plastic in bottles is welcome, "Less plastic doesn't increase the rate of recycling ... and it does not reduce the energy use to recycle it."

Pepsi and others oppose bottle- and can-deposit bills, which have boosted recycling rates in states where they have been passed. The companies say they are taking other steps. Pepsi works with recycling programs and urges consumers to recycle with advertising on its Pepsi-Cola and Diet Pepsi aluminum cans. The company uses 10% recycled material in its plastic soda bottles, and it is working on increasing that amount.

Coke says it uses about 5% recycled content in bottles of sodas, teas, water and other drinks. The company says it has invested in recycling programs and is building a plant to recycle bottles.

Continued from above: While it's weight has been reduced, the new bottle's (r) exterior dimensions remain the same or are actually larger than the previous bottle (l). Thus the municipal recycling department, which has been forced to take on the burden of recycling this plastic trash, will have to spend more money to recycle less weight. To the municipality, weight is how they recuperate the expenses involved in recycling plastic.

More by Paul Goettlich

source: p.B2 6may2008

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