PepsiCo announced Tuesday that it had “cracked the code,” inventing what it calls the world’s first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources.
Down to the molecular level, it’s a clone of today’s plastic bottles, made with the resin polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The biggest difference is that manufacturing this bottle requires the use of no petroleum. Instead it is made from such renewable materials as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. In the future, the company expects to use other materials, such as orange peels, potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its own food businesses, which include product lines under the brands Frito-Lay, Tropicana and Quaker.
Carol Phillips, a University of Notre Dame marketing professor and president of market research firm Brand Amplitude said, “I think it’s big for the millennials. Everybody would love a way to be green, especially if it doesn’t cost them any more.”
Source: Los Angeles Times
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