PLANO, TEXAS — Frito-Lay and Quaker have partnered to open a Greenhouse Learning Center, located at parent company PepsiCo’s R&D headquarters. The Learning Center will be a hub for compostable packaging innovation and provide the tools to field test, measure and analyze different biodegradable packaging options, according to PepsiCo.
Through its recently launched PepsiCo Positive (pep+) initiative, PepsiCo seeks to make 100% of its product packaging 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 Greenhouse Learning Center is located next to the current prototyping lab that creates biodegradable packaging. Using the Learning Center’s resources, the company hopes to speed up the innovation timeline of testing to certification-ready by two to three times. In addition, the Learning Center will be available as an educational resource to visitors, co-ops, partners and stakeholders.
“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.”
PepsiCo’s main initiative moving forward is to formulate biodegradable and home-compostable packaging and the company plans to utilize the Learning Center’s resources to achieve that goal.