PepsiCo Inc: Sustainable Packaging Policies for Flexible Plastics

WHEREAS: Without immediate and sustained new commitments throughout the plastics value chain, annual flows of plastics into oceans could nearly triple by 2040.[1]

The growing plastic pollution crisis poses increasing risks to PepsiCo Inc Corporations could face an annual financial risk of approximately $100 billion should governments require them to cover the waste management costs of packaging they produce.[2] Governments around the world are increasingly enacting such policies, including five new state laws that impose fees on corporations for single-use plastic (SUP) packaging.[3] The European Union has banned ten SUP pollutants and taxed some non-recycled plastic packaging.[4] A French law requires 10% of packaging be reusable by 2027 and Portugal requires 30% reusable packaging by 2030.[5] Additionally, consumer demand for sustainable packaging is increasing.[6]

Pew Charitable Trusts’ groundbreaking study, Breaking the Plastic Wave (“Pew Report”), concluded that improved recycling alone is insufficient to address plastic pollution—instead, recycling must be coupled with reductions in use, materials redesign, and substitution.[7] The Pew Report finds that the greatest opportunity to reduce or eliminate plastic lies with flexible plastic packaging, often used for chips, sweets, and condiments among other uses, and virtually unrecyclable in America. With innovation, redesign, and substitution, 26 million metric tons of flexibles can be avoided globally.[8]

The Pew Report finds that reducing plastic use is the most viable solution from environmental, economic, and social perspectives, yet broad corporate and stakeholder alignment on flexible packaging solutions is lacking.[9]

Despite its stated commitments to sustainable packaging, more than 18% of PepsiCo’s packaging remains in flexibles.[10] Our Company is behind in its 2025 goals for reusable packaging, recyclable packaging in practice and at scale, and plastic reduction—increasing plastic use by more than 5% since 2020.[11] In the absence of immediate action to eliminate flexibles by robustly engaging in research and expansion of reusable packaging, PepsiCo is on track to fail to meet its 2025 packaging goals.

Our Company could avoid regulatory, environmental, and competitive risks by adopting a comprehensive approach to addressing flexible plastic packaging use at scale.

BE IT RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board issue a report, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary information, describing how PepsiCo could address flexible plastic packaging in alignment with the findings of the Pew Report, or other authoritative sources, to reduce its contribution to plastic pollution.

SUPPORTING STATEMENT: The report should, at Board discretion:

Assess the reputational, financial, and operational risks associated with continuing to use non-recyclable plastic packaging while plastic pollution grows;