PepsiCo Pooh-Poohs Plastic Waste Problem

As You Sow is a non-profit organization whose role is to “harness shareholder power to create lasting change and align investments with values. Our mission is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. Our vision is a safe, just, and sustainable world in which protecting the environment and human rights is central to corporate decision making.” One of its core initiatives is reducing plastic waste from companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

Sounds simple enough. What it really comes down to is encouraging shareholders to steer the corporations they invest in toward sustainable business practices that support a circular economy. As my colleague Carolyn Fortuna has written, As You Sow uses “shareholder resolutions and dialogue to alter a company’s practices and behavior. This tactic is known in the investment industry as ‘engagement’ to prod companies into increasing environmental responsibility.”

In December 2022, As You Sow successfully concluded an agreement with PepsiCo to double the amount of zero waste packaging it uses. In a press release, As You Sow announced the company would boost its reusable delivery systems by expanding its SodaStream business in homes and workplaces and by increasing its use of refillable plastic and glass bottles in selected markets. In addition, it would find new ways to ensure more fountain drinks are served in reusable cups, and offer more of its products such as Gatorade as powders and concentrates.

“The pledge was made in response to a shareholder proposal filed by As You Sow, asking the company to report on actions it could take to rapidly reduce dependence on single-use plastic packaging, with a suggested focus on setting stronger refillables goals. In March, the company agreed to set a goal by the end of 2022 for a percentage of beverages to be delivered via strategies that avoid or minimize single-use packaging,” As You Sow proclaimed.

PepsiCo Reneges

In a press release on May 22, 2025, PepsiCo announced it was “updating its packaging goals to focus on key markets where it believes its efforts can make the most positive impact and to better account for external factors outside of the company’s control. By prioritizing efforts in key packaging markets, continuing work to reduce its use of virgin plastic and improve the design of its packaging, PepsiCo plans to focus on investments that aim to improve the packaging lifecycle.”

Here’s the kicker. “The company is also sunsetting its reuse target, while continuing various efforts on reuse as part of its goal around designing packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable.” Sunsetting is corporate speak for abandoning. In other words, that agreement with As You Sow is no longer operative. Why? The company’s own words tell the tale.

“The revised goals on climate, packaging, agriculture and water also reflect PepsiCo’s understanding of where it can accelerate impact — striving for greater return on its investments — and where progress will take more time, based on the realities of key global enablers such as recycling and reuse infrastructure, electric grid modernization, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and cost-competitive vehicle availability, and varying and changing government approaches. (Emphasis added.) These refined goals reflect transparency about challenges, while reinforcing a commitment to rigorous progress tracking to pursue the company’s long-term sustainability vision.”

CleanTechnica readers will immediately decode the message contained in this statement. The current administration is taking a sledgehammer to the tax credits contained in the Inflation Reduction Act that would promote the use of electric vehicles in the company”s distribution network and the charging infrastructure needed to support them. “Varying and changing government approaches” really gives the game away.

Elections have consequences. The current administration has sent a strong signal to the business community that all the “woke” nonsense about sustainability that has been part of the conversation since the Paris Climate Accords of 2015 can now be safely ignored. But it’s more than that. It has been made abundantly clear that corporations that persist in promoting such goals will be punished.

As You Sow Speaks Out

We got an email this week from Ryon Harms at As You Sow concerning PepsiCo’s about face on reducing its pledge to use more reusable and refillable packaging and more recycled materials. Those two commitments were made by the company following the filing and subsequent withdrawal of shareholder proposals by As You Sow in 2021 and 2022. The email said the company had abandoned the reuse goal altogether and weakened the virgin plastics reduction goal without specifically stating why, citing vague “external factors” and “systemic barriers.”

“In the absence of a credible explanation, this appears to be an opportunistic move, in a deregulating political environment, to abandon the hard work necessary to seriously tackle growing plastic pollution through reusables,” said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow. “Shareholders expect companies to keep their commitments regardless of which way the political winds are blowing. Politics eventually change direction and companies that abandon their goals can easily fall behind on crucial commitments aimed at stemming plastic pollution.”

“As You Sow is deeply disappointed in this unexpected action by PepsiCo,” added Kelly McBee, circular economy manager at As You Sow. “The move appears counterintuitive to the company’s previous leadership in tackling plastic pollution and its PEP+ program to operate within planetary boundaries.”

The groundbreaking study in 2020 entitled Breaking the Plastic Wave concluded that recycling alone is insufficient to address plastic pollution. Instead, it must be coupled with reductions in use, materials redesign, and substitution through reusables. “PepsiCo’s decision to abandon reuse targets and scale back plastic reduction efforts calls into question whether the company is heeding the call to invest in a future of circular packaging — which conserves resources and reduces waste — or if it is instead embracing the wasteful status quo of take-make-waste,” the email said.

“Global governments are rapidly adopting policies holding corporations like PepsiCo financially accountable for packaging at its end-of-life, a policy known as extended producer responsibility (EPR.) In the U.S., seven producer responsibility laws for packaging have been enacted since 2021. These policies are designed to financially incentivize reusable and refillable packaging — making PepsiCo’s de-prioritization of these packaging formats increasingly out of step with evolving regulatory and market expectations. Furthermore, the forthcoming international adoption of a Global Plastics Treaty is expected to similarly emphasize plastic reduction and reusable alternatives, making it imperative that PepsiCo follow through on its goals,” the message from As You Sow explained.

As You Sow’s message pointed out the course change by PepsiCo followed a similar move by Coca-Cola six months ago. As a result, no portfolio-wide reuse goal is currently in effect among any of the 225 largest consumer-facing corporations with business operations in North America, according to As You Sow’s research report Plastic Promises Scorecard. The absence of reuse goals among leading corporations signals a dangerous retreat from circular economy principles and threatens to derail corporate progress on plastic pollution just as momentum is building.

A Call To Action

“We call on PepsiCo and its peer companies to uphold their responsibility to significantly reduce plastic pollution and contribute to the development of a circular economy for packaging–not only when it’s politically convenient, but especially when leadership is needed. Transformative change demands vision and resilience — not only when it’s politically convenient, but especially when leadership is needed. Transformative change demands vision and resilience,” Conrad MacKerron said.

The world is drowning in plastic, but companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are focused on one thing only — profits. The US administration has absolved the corporate world of any requirement to be good corporate citizens. If you are a private citizen and dump used motor oil in the woods, you face legal consequences. But if you are a large multi-national corporation, you are excused from all responsibility for the harm your business does to the environment. The message is clear: If your activities will harm the Earth, first make sure you are incorporated. Then you will be free to proceed with impunity.

Featured photo: “Microplastic” by Oregon State University is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.