PLANO,
Texas, April 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Frito-Lay
and Quaker today announced the opening of an industry-leading
Greenhouse Learning Center at its R&D headquarters. The
Learning Center will be used to field test, measure, and analyze
compostable packaging with an aim to speed up the rate of
innovation. This facility represents a key milestone to achieve the
company's PepsiCo Positive (pep+) packaging goal to design 100
percent of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable
or reusable by 2025.
"Our sustainable packaging vision is to build a world where
packaging need never becomes waste," said Denise Lefebvre, senior vice president of
R&D for PepsiCo. "We're actively changing our own compostable
snack packaging technologies. By sharing these technologies, we're
inviting the industry to make these changes as well. We are
prioritizing, investing in and expediting projects to build a more
circular, inclusive economy."
The R&D packaging team will use the Greenhouse Learning
Center to test the biodegradation properties of compostable
packages in different environments to accelerate learnings,
validate lab results through simultaneous, real-time experiments as
packaging formulations are improved and iterate packaging solutions
quicker.
The Learning Center is intended to enable packaging products to
move from testing to certification-ready at least two to three
times faster in an effort to drive the business and the entire
industry forward. The new facility, the first of its kind across
PepsiCo globally, is located next to and complements the existing
prototyping lab where compostable packaging is born. It also aims
to actively change industry standards by educating partners and
stakeholders on the benefits of transitioning to compostable
packaging, demonstrate circularity with biodegradable materials and
provide training to co-ops and visitors.
The R&D team at Frito-Lay and Quaker has been conducting
research and forming strategic partnerships for many years to
improve the packaging process. After releasing the world's first
100% commercially compostable chip bags in 2010, Frito-Lay and
Quaker continue to make progress in evolving its compostable
packaging.
"We look forward to leveraging key findings from the Greenhouse
Learning Center, alongside our scale, reach, and expertise across
North America and globally, to
drive progress across our organization and the entire industry,"
said David Allen, chief
sustainability officer, Frito-Lay and Quaker. "We must work
together to inspire positive change for the planet and people, and
Frito-Lay and Quaker are proud to be leading the way."
Building on its learnings from the launch of Off The Eaten
Path's next-generation, commercially compostable packaging, the
company introduced other options made from 85% renewable plant
materials that produce approximately 60% lower greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions than traditional snack bags. Moving forward, the
company will be focused on home-compostable packaging and packaging
that's biodegradable, and research conducted at the Greenhouse will
play a key role.
PepsiCo has integrated sustainability into its business for
several decades and, in 2021, the company announced PepsiCo
Positive (pep+), an end-to-end transformation that puts
sustainability at the center of how the company will create growth
and value. It has established goals under one comprehensive
framework: Positive Agriculture, Positive Value Chain and Positive
Choices. For more information about pep+ visit
PepsiCo.com/PepsiCoPositive.
About Frito-Lay North America
Frito-Lay North America is the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo,
Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Frito-Lay snacks include Lay's
and Ruffles potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips and
branded dips, Cheetos snacks, Stacy's pita chips, PopCorners
popped-corn snack, SunChips multigrain snacks and Fritos corn
chips. The company operates 30+ manufacturing facilities across the
U.S. and Canada, more than 200
distribution centers and services 315,000 retail customers per week
through its direct-store-delivery model. Learn more about Frito-Lay
at the corporate website, www.fritolay.com, on Twitter (@fritolay),
on Instagram (@fritolay) and on Facebook (Frito-Lay).
About The Quaker Oats Company
The Quaker Oats Company, headquartered in Chicago, is a unit of PepsiCo, Inc., one of
the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies. For more
than 140 years, Quaker's brands have served as symbols of quality,
great taste and nutrition. Quaker® Oats,
Quaker® Rice Cakes and Quaker Chewy® Granola Bars are
consumer favorites. For more information, please visit
www.QuakerOats.com, www.Facebook.com/Quaker or follow us on Twitter
and Instagram @Quaker.
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SOURCE Frito-Lay North
America