Last modified: March 23, 2019
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Recycling Proposal (Proxy Item No. 6) [page19]

Walden Asset Management, 40 Court Street, Boston, MA, 02108, which owns 6,320 shares of PepsiCo Common Stock, has submitted, along with other religious groups or institutions, the following resolution for the reasons stated:

“WHEREAS, PepsiCo has repeatedly emphasized its commitment to environmental leadership, and its brand value depends on excellence.

Yet PepsiCo has no comprehensive recycling strategy that includes quantitative goals for boosting the recycled content in its U.S. beverage containers or for enhanced rates of beverage container recovery in the U.S.

More than one-fourth of PepsiCo’s bottled products are bottled in plastic (polyethylene terephthalate or PET) beverage containers. Except for the recently acquired Gatorade brand, no PepsiCo plastic beverage container in the U.S. contains recycled content. This is not an environmentally sound and sustainable path. At the same time, our company’s major competitor uses at least 25 percent recycled-content plastic in its beverage containers sold in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Sweden and uses 10% recycled content in three-quarters of its North American bottles. PepsiCo has the technological capability to utilize a similar level of recycled content, and should avoid a competitive disadvantage on environmental concerns.

Other major beverage and consumer product companies, such as Procter & Gamble, use 25 percent recycled content in their containers (Plastics Recycling Update, 11/96 & 12/97; Plastics News, 11/3/97 & 5/13/00).

WHEREAS, more than half of PepsiCo’s beverage containers in the U.S. are being needlessly thrown in landfills, incinerated or littered and are therefore diverted from the national supply of recycled plastic and aluminum.

According to American Plastics Council data, the U.S. recycling rate for plastic soft drink containers declined from 53 percent in 1994 to 36 percent in 2000. The aluminum can recycling rate declined from 61% in 1994 to 54.5% in 2000. Pepsi has actively lobbied against bottle container deposit systems (i.e. bottle bill legislation) that are the only proven method to increase recovery significantly, thereby providing a steady supply of scrap material for manufacturing beverage containers and other products.

Significant container recovery rates are possible. U.S. states with beverage container deposit systems have recovered three times as many bottles as states without deposits. In Germany and Sweden, beverage companies have achieved beverage container recovery rates of more than 80 percent.

Recycled PET content can be less costly than its virgin counterpart if a greater supply of used containers is made available for recycling.

WHEREAS, setting quantitative goals for boosting the recycled content in its beverage containers and for higher rates of beverage container recovery will constitute a significant step toward minimizing our company’s impact on the environment.

BE IT RESOLVED, that shareowners of PepsiCo request that the board of directors adopt a comprehensive recycling strategy. The strategy should aim to achieve, by January 1, 2005, a system-wide average of 25 percent recycled content in all plastic beverage containers, and a recovery rate of 80 percent for its beverage containers sold in North America. The board shall prepare a report for shareholders by October 1, 2002, on the company’s efforts and progress toward achieving this strategy.”

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