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Cola Wars Sparking "The beginning of the end of petroleum-based plastics"

By Rain Noe - March 16, 2011

in Tech

PepsiCo now has a green bullet they can fire at archrival Coca-Cola. Yesterday the former revealed that they have a new, petroleum-products-free bottle design comprised entirely of vegetable products including switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. Despite its more natural provenance, the new bottle is "indistinguishable" from the current plastic one, according to PepsiCo's Senior Veep of Advance Research Rocco Papalia. "We've cracked the code," he said.

PepsiCo announced the discovery Tuesday and said it plans to test the product in 2012 in a few hundred thousand bottles. Once the company is sure it can successfully produce the bottle at that scale, it will begin converting all its products over.

That could mean a switch of billions of bottles sold each year. Of Pepsi's 19 biggest brands, those that generate more than $1 billion in revenue, 11 are beverage brands that use PET.

Scientists said the technology is important innovation in packaging.

"This is the beginning of the end of petroleum-based plastics," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council and director of its waste management project. "When you have a company of this size making a commitment to a plant-based plastic, the market is going to respond."

Coca-Cola is working on a similar bottle, but they're reportedly several years behind.

via npr

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Harold Johnson

13 years ago

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Why is it good news? They're taking compostable organic material -- nature's own fertilizer -- and turning it into a synthetic that won't really decompose away even after 1,000 years. That doesn't sound like good news. Plus, the plastics lobby themselves argue that petroleum-based plastic is made from natural gas by-products of oil drilling -- stuff that would otherwise be flared off or go to waste. So making plastic from plants doesn't seem likely to cut down on petroleum/fossil-fuel use in any meaningful way. Lastly, plastic "recycling" is merely downcycling. Go to a grocery store. Look at all the thousands of #1 PET soda/water/juice bottles they have. Find -one- that says "made using recycled PET." Plastic is junk, at best junk that can be kicked down the road another cycle or two before it becomes too uneconomical to make anything out of. Taking the earth's own nourishment and turning it into something that'll get used once, maybe twice, and then live on for a thousand years? Folly.

The reality of this achievement is that, even if we manage to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel use, corporations will now still be able to churn out millions of tons of non-degradable, faux-"recyclable" plastics to collect in parks, rivers, & ocean gyres. Business as usual. And a complete, utter greenwash.
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John Smith

13 years ago

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James, get your ass out of your head, and perhaps study high school chemistry. Hemp is anything but a plastic
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James Leighton

13 years ago

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We have had biodegradable plastic for thousands of years its called Hemp! why the hell is this so special?
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Daniel

13 years ago

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Now if only they could do something about that logo...
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Dieter Amick

13 years ago

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This is the first article on this subject that has refrained from incorrectly referring to this new plant based bottle as a new kind of 'PET' bottle. It only takes a quick google search to discover that PET is in fact a kind of plastic.

I agree with LaCroix, Pepsico should license the technology to other companies to show that they really are committed to environmental stewardship.

Or they could just expand on what Germany and some others are already doing by continuing to use PET but with thicker, stronger bottles that are collected and reused rather than recycled (downcycled in most cases).
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mike m

13 years ago

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I have discovered that these bottles are in fact PETplastic and are fully recyclable as PET plastic. The plastic itself is made from plants not from oil but in the end it results in the same fully compatible fully recyclable PETpolymer.
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Josue R. Campos

13 years ago

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Where there is a will there is a way! Cheers Pepsi! I wonder if I can eat the bottle for a snack.
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John LaCroix

13 years ago

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If Pepsi wants to make a real statement they should license this technology to their competitors. They might even make a buck off of it. That's a gesture that would make me drink their far inferior cola.
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mike m

13 years ago

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What about recyclability? What is the after use plan for these bio based bottles that are indistinguishable from PET plastic bottles which are collected for recycling?
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