PepsiCo‘s Frito-Lay and Quaker have announced the opening of a ‘Greenhouse Learning Center’ to field test, measure and analyse compostable packaging, with an aim to speed up the rate of innovation.
Located at the companies’ R&D headquarters in Plano, Texas, the facility will contribute to its ‘PepsiCo Positive (pep+)’ packaging goal to design 100% of packaging to be recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable by 2025.
Denise Lefebvre, senior vice president of R&D for PepsiCo, said: “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 prioritising, investing in and expediting projects to build a more circular, inclusive economy.”
The R&D packaging team will use the new facility to test the biodegradation properties of compostable packages in different environments. PepsiCo expects this to accelerate learnings and validate lab results through simultaneous, real-time experiments as packaging formulations are improved and iterate packaging solutions quicker.
The centre is intended to enable packaging products to move from testing to certification-ready at least twice as fast as current practices, driving the industry forward.
The company says that the new facility is the first of its kind across PepsiCo globally and is located next to the existing prototyping lab where compostable packaging is created. It aims to demonstrate circularity with biodegradable materials and provide training to co-ops and visitors.
David Allen, chief sustainability officer at Frito-Lay and Quaker, commented: “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 organisation and the entire industry”.
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