PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) fired the latest shot in the ongoing green cola wars with rival Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO).
The company is offering five types of green, recyclable and compostable cups to foodservice customers in the US.
It’s the latest in an encouraging game of one-upmanship being played out by Pepsi and Coca-Cola, which recently introduced recyclable display racks. Before that, both companies introduced bio-plastic bottles.
Pepsi’s new offerings consist of fully recyclable clear plastic cups, including an rPET cup containing 20% post-consumer recycled content, as well as compostable paper cups and wax cups made with plant-based materials sourced from sustainably managed forests.
Foodservice customers – such as restaurants, stadiums and theme parks, and colleges and universities – now have sustainable options for which cups make the most sense for them, based on locally available recycling and composting disposal facilities.
Pepsi-branded cups have printed messages, like: "Wow, Our Cups are Fully Recyclable." The cups also encourage consumers to visit Earth911.com for information on how to properly recycle materials in their local communities.
"The new cups are an advancement in technology, but also in the way we communicate," says Margery Schelling, CMO PepsiCo Foodservice. "Customers increasingly are asking for environmental products that match changing needs, expectations and lifestyles."
"Earth911 is pleased to see PepsiCo take a leadership role in providing people with accessible and actionable recycling information," says Earth911 President Corey Lambrecht. "It’s not enough to tell people to simply recycle – you have to show them how and where."
PepsiCo says it introduced the green cups in response to growing demand for sustainable beverage packaging, particularly among college and university students.
A Beveragepulse.com study last year showed that 94% of consumers are concerned about the environmental effects of beverage packaging, and 60% of Millennials and Gen-Xers would be willing to pay slightly more for recycled beverage packaging that’s better for the environment, according to a study by Mintel Beverage Packaing Trends.
Pepsi says the roll out of green cups is part of its global environmental goals and commitments, among them to reduce packaging waste, use rPET and renewable sources in packaging, and increase the national beverage container recycling rate.
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