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Mar. 2, 2013PepsiCo presentó una botellas fabricada de material vegetal
PepsiCo Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a bottle made entirely of plant material that it says is better than the technology of competitor Coca-Cola Co.
The bottle is made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. Ultimately, Pepsi plans to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business.
The new bottle looks, feels and protects the drink inside exactly the same as its current bottles, said Rocco Papalia, senior vice president of advanced research at PepsiCo. “It’s indistinguishable.”
PepsiCo says it is the world’s first bottle of a common type of plastic called PET made entirely of plant-based materials. Coke currently produces a bottle using 30% plant-based materials and recently estimated it would be several years before it has a 100% plant bottle that’s commercially viable.
“We’ve cracked the code,” said Mr. Papalia.
The discovery potentially changes the industry standard for plastic packaging. Traditional plastic, called PET, is used in beverage bottles, food pouches, coatings and other common products.
Traditional PET plastic is made using fossil fuels, a limited resource that’s rising in price. By using plant material instead, companies reduce their environmental impact. Pepsi says the new plastic will cost about the same as traditional plastic.
The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., said it has had dozens of people working on the process for years. While PepsiCo wouldn’t specify the cost to research and design the new bottle, Papalia said it is in the millions of dollars.
PepsiCo plans to test the product in 2012 in a few hundred thousand bottles. Once the company is sure it can successfully produce the bottle at that scale, it will begin converting all its products over.