Pepsi designs lighter, more eco-friendly bottle for non-carbonated drinks

PURCHASE, N.Y. Pepsi proclaimed yesterday it will begin bottling some flavored drinks in a new 500-mL beverage bottle made with 20 percent less plastic. Pepsi said the bottles will arrive in stores starting this month.

Pepsi will sell Aquafina Alive, Aquafina FlavorSplash, Lipton iced tea and Tropicana juice drinks in the lighter bottles. These selections will be available in 12- and 24-packs. Pepsi said about 20 million pounds of waste will be eliminated from entering the environment by the introduction of the bottles.

“As a company, we’ve challenged ourselves to consistently identify ways to lessen our impact on the environment and in this case we’re doing a little ‘plastic surgery,’” PepsiCo vice president of worldwide beverage packaging and equipment development, Robert Lewis, said. “We’re constantly striving to make our packaging an even smaller part of the waste stream and this new bottle is just one of many examples.”

Not only will the amount of plastic used in each bottle be reduced, Pepsi said, label sizes will also be reduced by 10 percent and shrink wrap film used to cover multi-packs will be lessened by 5 percent.

Pepsi said that a special team of experts from inside and outside the company were behind the project. After trying out more than 30 designs with consumer testing, a team worked to streamline the lightweight package that is now coming to the market.