Brussels, 29 May 2024. Today, PepsiCo and GreenDot announced a historic agreement to support investment to recycle plastic waste back into recycled materials that can be used for PepsiCo’s snacks packaging. GreenDot, a holistic solution for plastic circularity provider, has been expanding its German sorting and recycling activities and developed additional assets in Austria and Italy. The group now also incorporates advanced recycling in its portfolio to be able to supply circular polymers to brands and converters.

This collaboration comes at a critical time as PepsiCo Europe aims to eliminate virgin fossil-based plastic in all its crisp and chip bags by 2030.

“We are very happy with this new collaboration which now goes beyond EPR licensing and establishes a new business model and closes the loop between waste plastic and recycled content in packaging,” says Mark Vester, EVP for Business Development and the German Business at GreenDot.

“This agreement is an important milestone for the industry. It further paves the way towards a circular economy of plastic packaging, with the support of a new type of long-term collaboration between key players of the value chain. I wish to congratulate PepsiCo for their vision, leadership and for walking the talk, in line with their goal to increase the recycled content in their packaging and to reduce their carbon footprint. GreenDot will invest in developing plastic packaging to packaging recycling capacities, including advanced recycling of polyolefins, providing needed solutions at scale for the food industry,” says Laurent Auguste, CEO of GreenDot.

Archana Jagannathan, Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo Europe, says: “The partnership is critical to scaling our operations and working together towards our shared goal of creating a circular economy for packaging. Advanced and mechanical recycling are part of a broader suite of recycling we are leveraging to bring us one step closer to this goal. Closing the loop between plastic and recycled content is a central part of our PepsiCo Positive agenda. We aim to reduce the waste we send to landfill in our direct operations and across our value chain.”

PepsiCo and GreenDot are currently collaborating on new snacks packaging for Sunbites crisps which contain 50% recycled* plastic film packaging. This new packaging was launched in the UK and Ireland in late 2023, and the company is expecting to expand this further.

Establishing a network of recycling plants in Europe

GreenDot provides comprehensive solutions for the recyclability of plastic, whether mechanically or chemically recycled. The aim is to keep more materials in the loop and reduce the environmental impact of packaging waste, including for difficult to recycle plastic waste that would otherwise end up being incinerated adding to the climate challenge. To achieve that, GreenDot is establishing a network of sorting and (mechanical and chemical) recycling plants in Europe. In addition to its historical activities in Germany, in Austria, GreenDot and their partners are building a state-of-the-art sorting plant for used plastic packaging. In Italy, GreenDot has laid the foundations for high-quality recycling with the acquisition of Synextra, a specialist in the sorting and processing of plastic waste.

(Picture: PepsiCo)

*Recycled plastic content allocated using the ISCC+ certified mass balance approach. For more information, please visit www.iscc-system.org