PepsiCo is expanding its use of advanced recycling to turn hard-to-recycle plastic waste into new food-grade beverage packaging. Through a multi-year agreement with Eastman, the company is sourcing recycled materials made from discarded polyester-based waste, including items that often fall outside traditional recycling systems such as carpets, textile fibres, plastic films and certain coloured or opaque containers.

The initiative reflects a central challenge in packaging circularity. While many beverage bottles can move through established collection and mechanical recycling systems, a large share of everyday plastic waste remains difficult to recover and reuse. These materials are often contaminated, mixed, coloured or technically unsuitable for conventional recycling, meaning they are more likely to be landfilled, incinerated or lost from the circular economy.

By using Eastman’s advanced recycling technology, PepsiCo aims to bring these overlooked materials back into the packaging value chain. The company has already started introducing Gatorade bottles in the United States containing recycled plastic enabled by the process, demonstrating how waste that would otherwise have limited end-of-life options can be transformed into new beverage packaging.

Advanced recycling is not intended to replace mechanical recycling, but to expand the range of plastics that can be converted into high-quality recycled content.

Traditional mechanical recycling remains essential for packaging circularity. It typically involves collecting, sorting, washing, grinding, melting and reforming plastic into new products. This method works well for certain clear and clean plastic streams, especially PET beverage bottles. However, it can struggle with mixed materials, dark colours, degraded plastics and products such as carpets or fibres that were not originally designed for bottle-to-bottle recycling.

Advanced recycling addresses this limitation by breaking plastic waste down to its molecular building blocks. These materials can then be purified and rebuilt into recycled plastic with performance characteristics close to virgin resin. For food and beverage packaging, this is particularly important because recycled content must meet demanding safety, clarity, durability and regulatory requirements.

For PepsiCo, the technology supports a broader strategy to reduce dependence on virgin fossil-based plastic. By incorporating recycled material from difficult waste streams, the company can increase recycled content in selected packaging formats while helping to create demand for recycling systems that recover more than conventional bottles alone.

The use of advanced recycling also highlights the importance of collaboration across the packaging supply chain. Beverage brands, material suppliers, recyclers, converters and regulators all need to work together to ensure recycled materials are safe, traceable and commercially scalable. Eastman’s role is to provide the technology and recycled feedstock pathway, while PepsiCo brings market scale and packaging demand.

• Waste diversion: hard-to-recycle plastics can be redirected from landfill into new material streams.
• Food-grade output: molecular recycling can produce recycled plastic suitable for demanding packaging applications.
• Virgin plastic reduction: brands can lower reliance on new petrochemical resin by expanding recycled content sources.

The approach also has strategic value for packaging design. As brands work toward circularity, they must consider not only whether a package is recyclable, but whether enough recycled material is available to support future production. Advanced recycling can help increase supply, especially for applications where mechanical recycling alone cannot provide sufficient quality or volume.

However, PepsiCo has emphasised that advanced recycling is only one part of the solution. A truly circular packaging economy also requires better collection systems, stronger sorting infrastructure, improved packaging design, consumer participation and continued investment in mechanical recycling. Without these elements, even the most advanced technologies will have limited impact.

The transformation of old carpets and other hard-to-recycle materials into new beverage bottles shows how circular packaging is moving beyond simple bottle recovery. It points toward a more flexible system where different recycling technologies work together to keep materials in use for longer, reduce waste and support lower-impact packaging.

For the wider packaging industry, PepsiCo’s partnership with Eastman demonstrates the growing commercial role of advanced recycling in food-grade applications. As regulation and consumer expectations push brands to increase recycled content, technologies that can unlock difficult waste streams are likely to become increasingly important in the transition from linear plastic use to circular material systems.

Image concept: a circular packaging process showing discarded carpets, plastic films and coloured containers being converted through advanced recycling into clear recycled resin pellets and new Gatorade-style beverage bottles on a filling line.