New York State Sues PepsiCo Claiming its Plastic Pollution Endangers Public Health

New York’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has called out PepsiCo as the top contributor to plastic pollution in the Buffalo River—allegedly responsible for three times the plastic floating in this Great Lakes water body than McDonald’s.

The multinational fast-food franchise was identified as the second largest offender in an OAG study. The findings led New York State Attorney General Letitia James to file a lawsuit against PepsiCo, which charges that the New York State-headquartered soda and snack food giant is contaminating drinking water and endangering human health and wildlife.

The civil lawsuit brought to the Supreme Court of New York’s Erie County charges that PepsiCo, which reportedly produced 2,600,000 tons of plastic packaging in 2022, “has misled the public about its efforts to combat plastic pollution while increasing production of single-use plastic packaging” and, in doing so, contributes to a “public nuisance that injures the community.”

“No company is too big to ensure that their products do not damage our environment and public health. All New Yorkers have a basic right to clean water, yet PepsiCo’s irresponsible packaging and marketing endanger Buffalo’s water supply,” attests James.

The OAG seeks civil penalties, restitution, and calls for PepsiCo to stop selling or distributing products in single-use plastic packaging in the Buffalo region unless it carries warnings of the potential harm from resulting plastic pollution.  

The Buffalo River is a freshwater tributary, once considered one of the most polluted rivers in the US due to various manufacturing practices and chemical and sewage discharges. For years it was literally considered “biologically dead,” devoid of fish.

The late 1980’s marked the beginning of a turnround thanks to deep investments in remediation projects, new environmental policies, and beefed-up sewage control efforts. But the OAG and several public officials and environmental groups say that plastic pollution is disrupting progress. From 2013 to 2022, about 78 percent of waste that Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper volunteers pulled from the Buffalo River watershed was plastic.

“Our Buffalo community fought for over 50 years to secure hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up toxic pollution, improve habitat, and restore communities around the Buffalo River,” Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper said in a statement. 

“As a Great Lakes city that has been oppressed for too long by the environmental damage left from our industrial hangover, we will not sit idly by as our waterways become polluted again, this time from ever-growing single-use plastic pollution,” Jedlicka said.

The OAG study looked at multiple waste types found at 13 sites along the Buffalo River and its tributaries and found that of 1,916 plastic pieces that could be traced to a specific brand, over 17 percent was made by PepsiCo.

Similarly, a four-year study conducted by Break Free From Plastic at thousands of collection points cross the US consistently reported PepsiCo as the top or second producer of plastic litter identifiable by brand.

Further investigation turned up “large” quantities of microplastics in the Buffalo River, which an analysis confirmed were present in snack food wrappers and polymers used in plastic beverage bottles and bottle caps.

Microplastics have also been detected in drinking water that’s sourced within a mile of the Buffalo River’s mouth as well as in the region’s freshwater species who mistake it for food and ingest it.

“We’re the city of good neighbors,” said the office of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown.

“We not only strive to be good to each other, but we want to be good to the environment around us. I thank Attorney General James for her partnership in my administration’s goal to create a greener and climate friendly city,” Brown said in a statement.

PepsiCo confirms its virgin plastic footprint increased by 2 percent per serving against a 2020 baseline—11 percent in “absolute terms.”

On its website PepsiCo flags challenges such as growth in markets that do not allow or have only recently allowed recycled PET in food-grade packaging; inadequate recycling infrastructure; and low recycling rates that make collection and recycling of packaging difficult.

“This is a complex issue and requires involvement from a variety of stakeholders, including businesses, municipalities, waste-reduction providers, community leaders, and consumers,” a PepsiCo spokesperson said.

The corporation has stated it’s working to make headway in reducing its plastic footprint by focusing on identifying new sources for recycled PET and says it plans to invest in new technologies such as chemical recycling, compaction equipment that allows for the reduction in flexible film, and new technology to lightweight bottles.

Plastic packaging producers are increasingly in the spotlight as consumers and policymakers demand transparency.

In response, Ubuntoo who supports corporations in reaching sustainability goals, developed a method to quantify companies’ ambitions to reduce their plastic waste that compares those ambitions to realized accomplishments.  Ubuntoo’s 2021 Plastic Promises Report delves into some of its findings.

The report lays out four identified goals: recyclability, reduction in virgin plastic content, recycled content, and recovery. At the time of the 2021 report, 10 percent of companies were on track or ahead of their goals. Check out this link to see which of the few corporations are leading the way, and which are trailing.