From January 1, 2025, the EU Directive SUP (Single-USE Plastics) is in force. According to the provisions contained in it, disposable PET bottles must contain at least 25 percent. Recycling plastic. From 2030, this indicator will increase to 30 percent.
– Our company boasts that we have 100 percent since 2018. In bottles – said Julian Krzyżanowski, corporate communication manager at Pepsico. – Last year we were able to reach 100 percent. volume, and we are talking about such brands as Pepsi, Mirinda or Lipton Ice Tea – emphasized Julian Krzyżanowski.
In anticipation of the deposit system
However, pro -environmental activities are neither simple nor cheap.
–Recycled plastic RPET is simply missing or not suitable for contact with food, or is very expensive and we have to use shopping from abroad – explained the representative of Pepsico.
He announced that the company’s expenditure on RPET is $ 5 million a year.
That is why the global producer of drinks (and snacks) looks hoping in the near future, because on October 1, 2025, the deposit system will be in force in Poland. It will cover disposable plastic bottles for drinks (water, juice, nectar, milk, carbonated drinks) with a capacity of up to 3 liters, as well as glass packaging for reusable drinks with a capacity of up to 1.5 liters and metal cans with a capacity of up to 1 liter. When purchasing, a deposit for bottles and cans will be added. Empty packaging will be available to the store to recover the amount paid for them.
– We believe that this will improve our situation, that through the transition period, i.e. from October to December, consumers will learn to use the bail system, they will give bottles to stores. They will not be wasted, thrown into dumps or burned used packages will return to the sorting plant, and then to producers like us and we will be able to give them a second life in the form of a bottle of RPET – described Julian Krzyżanowski.
He added, however, that building a closed circuit economy (GOZ) is a process, but also expressed the hope that this year would be a significant step in its direction and beverage producers, including Pepsico, will gain access to a cheaper and good quality recyclic.
Goal – zero -emission
The awareness of entrepreneurs about the economy of the closed circuit remains a challenge in Poland. Only 37 percent companies on the Polish market take any action in the field of GOZ, and 53 percent. She never heard of such a concept.
Pepsico covered this path.
– However, this required time and investment – noted Julian Krzyżanowski.
An element of this tedious process was the switching of a global producer of drinks for green energy.
– We started in 2018 with the purchase of certificates with a guarantee of electricity origin. We counted how much energy we use for production, we bought from one of the distributors guarantees that the electricity we buy comes from wind farms located in Poland. In the following years, we added energy consumed in our warehouses, later also in refrigerators. And there are several thousand on the market then we found that it is still not enough. . We decided to put our own solar farms at our plants. Last year, we launched four farms with a total power of 6mwp. . We continue this path, this year we intend to 50 percent. Increase the power of our solar farms, we will build more. We also have plans to invest in our own wind farms in a few years. Our goal is that we would be zero -emission after some time – said Pepsico representative.
A small thing, huge effects
Julian Krzyżanowski also emphasized the importance of small projects. This year, Pepsico at the drink plant in Michrów reduced the bottle thread by 2 mm – from 17 to 15 mm. The height of the nut decreased in the same way, thanks to which the weight of the whole bottle decreased by 3 grams. This limited the consumption of primary plastic for the production of bottles by as much as 700 tons per year.
– JWe were very proud of this solution – Julian Krzyżanowski did not hide. -It is not very significant, but it brings huge savings with our scale of activity He added. – We will focus on such activities in subsequent years, so that our environmental impact is as small as possible – he concluded.
10 years of the history of GOZ
The main principle of circular economy (closed circuit) is to treat waste as resources. The point is that the waste would be as little as possible at the production stage. And if they are already, then you have to manage them so as not to waste them.
The closed circuit economy has been in public debate for 10 years. In 2015, the European Commission announced an action plan in this area, and the Polish government in 2019 adopted a road map towards GOZ transformation.
During the session in Katowice, studies were cited showing that consumers are not ready to pay more for products produced, taking into account GOZ principles, which is interpreted as the need for greater education in this area.
GS
