PepsiCo doubles down on sustainability in partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai

It has launched fully recyclable, Expo 2020 Dubai co-branded Aquafina cans and glass bottles, accelerating investment in sustainable packaging

The Aquafina launch event, Expo 2020 Dubai. Image: Suneesh Sudhakaran/Expo 2020 Dubai 

PepsiCo has announced the launch of Aquafina aluminium cans and glass bottles, their infinitely recyclable characteristic offering for UAE residents to enjoy a refreshingly sustainable way to drink water.

The announcement is in line with the commitment of PepsiCo, Expo 2020 Dubai's Official Beverage and Snack Partner, to collect and recycle PepsiCo waste generated on Expo 2020 Dubai’s site during the six-month global gathering, accelerating efforts to reduce, recycle and reinvent better and more sustainable packaging.

The pioneering co-branded Aquafina-Expo 2020 cans offer a sustainable packaging option for the UAE, an initiative that was unveiled at the Expo 2020 site in the presence of Manal AlBayat, Chief Engagement Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai. The new design and packaging, as well as Expo 2020 waste-diversion efforts, are contributing to the drive towards a circular economy in the UAE by providing innovative packaging solutions that are widely recyclable, and by encouraging a push towards recycling via active local partnerships.

On site, PepsiCo will work closely with Dulsco – Expo 2020 Dubai’s Official Waste Management Partner – to ensure waste from PepsiCo’s products are collected and recycled, supporting Expo’s target of diverting a minimum of 85 per cent of waste away from landfill.

“As a global F&B brand, we realise the significant role PepsiCo can play in building a world where packaging never becomes waste," said Aamer Sheikh, President and General Manager at PepsiCo – Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan

"The latest addition of Aquafina cans and glass bottles to our growing beverage portfolio not only provides a refreshing new experience for consumers, but also reinforces a circular future for packaging by focusing efforts on reinventing and recycling. Expo 2020 Dubai and PepsiCo share a joint vision for a more sustainable future. This like-minded approach to sustainability underscores our collaborative, ambitious and wide-reaching partnership. We look forward to leveraging the power of the Expo platform to create meaningful change at a global level, during Expo 2020 and beyond.”

Manal AlBayat, Chief Engagement Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai, said: "Expo 2020 Dubai aims to be one of the most sustainable World Expos in history, supporting the UAE's continued efforts to build cleaner, safer, and healthier communities for its people.

"With Sustainability as one of our three key subthemes, we are committed to innovating and creating positive change on a local, national, regional and global scale. This is a vision we share with PepsiCo. Their new Aquafina aluminum cans and glass bottles provide infinitely recyclable alternatives for consumers, firmly aligning to Expo’s and PepsiCo’s pledges to support the circular economy by minimising the waste that ends up in landfill and treating all waste materials as valuable resources that can be reused, repurposed or recycled.”

PepsiCo considers the full environmental impact of its packaging, including recyclability, inclusion of recycled material, and access to market sorting and collection mechanisms that will ensure circularity within the economy. Plastic, glass and aluminum packaging, when offered the infrastructure to be recycled, present an opportunity to keep material in the supply chain and out of the environment. Therefore, efforts must focus on increasing the recyclability of packaging, increasing use of recycled content in packaging, and increasing recycling rates for post-consumer packaging waste – pillars PepsiCo and The PepsiCo Foundation are working to accelerate across the world.

PepsiCo has further added momentum to the sustainability movement by inviting its partners, customers, and their respective customers, to join Aquafina’s ‘Say Yes’ challenge – encouraging participants to choose sustainable packaging and encourage recycling efforts.

Earlier this year, PepsiCo and its local partners, Dubai Refreshment Company with support from Dulsco announced ambitious goals to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100 per cent Aquafina plastic packaging produced in the UAE in 2021, supporting the UAE’s national goal to maximise waste diversion from landfill.

Globally, PepsiCo aims to reduce 35 per cent of virgin plastic content across its beverage business by 2025. PepsiCo is also committed to designing 100 per cent of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable; and increasing recycled content in its plastics packaging to 25 per cent by 2025. PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation are investing to increase recycling globally, committing more than US$65 million since 2018.