Pepsi Canada unveils all-recycled PET bottle

PepsiCo’s Canadian division is introducing a new pop bottle in August that it says is the first ever in North America to be made entirely from recycled PET plastic.

Billed as the EcoGreen bottle, it will be used first in all the company’s 7Up and Diet 7Up package sizes starting next month.

“After three years of research and development, we have cracked the code to commercially develop a soft drink bottle made from 100% recycled PET plastic, and Canada has proudly led the way,” Richard Glover, president of PepsiCo Beverages Canada, said.

Pepsi’s plastic bottles currently contain 10% recycled PET material. Switching to an all-recycled 7Up container will cut the use of new plastic at Pepsi factories by about six million pounds a year.

The company stressed that the new bottle will look and feel like any other PET plastic soft drink bottle. Consumers won’t notice the difference, Pepsi said in a statement.

The bottle will be produced at several different manufacturing plants across the country. Pepsi said it has invested $1 million in production systems to make way for the new bottle. It added that 7Up sold in the EcoGreen bottle would be sold for the same price as other soft drink brands.

The launch is being promoted to consumers in the coming weeks through a public relations campaign, a Facebook page and in-store signage. The EcoGreen logo is prominently featured on the bottle (pictured above).

A spokesman for Pepsi said the company is looking at introducing 100% recycled PET bottles for its other soda packaging but that "at the moment the market does not produce enough recycled plastic to allow us to use it across all our brands."

This is the latest green initiative from Pepsi. In March, the company’s U.S. division announced it had created the world’s first pop bottle made entirely of plant materials such as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks.