FoodLogistics.com |

Purchase, NY: Pepsi is introducing its lightest 500 milliliter flavored non-carbonated beverage bottle yet. The company has reduced the plastic in this bottle by 20 percent, which will eliminate approximately 20 million pounds of waste from the environment. The lighter bottles will begin hitting store shelves this month.

The new bottle will be launched in one of the beverage industry's fastest growing segments through established trademarks of Lipton Iced Tea, Tropicana juice drinks, Aquafina FlavorSplash and Aquafina Alive. It will be available in 12-packs and 24-packs. In addition to a 20 percent reduction in the plastic resin, there will be a 10 percent reduction in the label size and a five percent reduction in the shrink wrap film used to wrap the multi-packs.

"As a company, we've challenged ourselves to consistently identify ways to lessen our impact on the environment and in this case we're doing a little 'plastic surgery,'" says Robert Lewis, VP of worldwide beverage packaging and equipment development, PepsiCo. "We're constantly striving to make our packaging an even smaller part of the waste stream and this new bottle is just one of many examples.

"The challenge was to deliver significantly lighter packaging that would provide the same shelf life as the heavier bottle, withstand the manufacturing and distribution process yet not compromise aesthetics," said Lewis. "After a full year of hard work from multiple corners of the company, we hit the trifecta—a bottle that satisfied the needs of our system, our consumers and the environment."

For more information, visit www.pepsiproductfacts.com.