PepsiCo Thinks Folks Are Ready To Crack Open Cold Cans of....Water

In an effort to eliminate thousands of tons of virgin plastic, PepsiCo has announced a series of significant changes to its beverage packaging, including a trial run of canned Aquafina water.

Cans of Aquafina will initially be available at restaurants and other types of food service vendors, with a wider rollout to supermarkets and grocery stores to follow.

Other changes include a change to 100% recycled plastic for LIFEWTR packaging, and sparkling water bubly will no longer be packaged in plastic bottles. The changes, which the beverage maker says will go into effect next year, is expected to eliminate more than 8,000 metric tons of virgin plastic and 11,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. These actions are part of PepsiCo's broader goal of making all of its packaging either recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable, and use 25% recycled plastic in all plastic packaging, by 2025.

"Tackling plastic waste is one of my top priorities and I take this challenge personally," PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said via press release. "As one of the world's leading food and beverage companies, we recognize the significant role PepsiCo can play in helping to change the way society makes, uses, and disposes of plastics. We are doing our part to address the issue head on by reducing, recycling and reinventing our packaging to make it more sustainable, and we won't stop until we live in a world where plastics are renewed and reused."

Canned water isn't a new idea, but PepsiCo move is a novel one for a major beverage brand. Aluminum is already widely used to package beverages, and aluminum beverage containers are recycled at a rate of 70%.