We are continually innovating our packaging designs and processes to reduce the amount of material used, incorporate more post-consumer recycled content and redesign packaging for recycling. Our cross-functional teams continue to work toward our established and ambitious sustainable packaging goals. As of the end of 2022, 90% of our packaging is designed to be recyclable or compostable – with a goal of 100% by 2025. Additionally, we are committed to reducing our virgin plastic use by 20% across our product packaging portfolio by 2025, achieving an 11% reduction as of the end of 2022. This was enabled in part by our efforts to significantly increase recycled content in plastic beverage bottles, reaching 18% in 2022, up from 11% in 2021.

Our commitment to reducing our plastic footprint includes exploration of new partnerships and new delivery models, such as reusable and refillable containers. We offer a number of products that allow for the option to refill, including traditional fountain beverages – which support reusable cup options – and the My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter for use in Keurig brewers. From a partnership perspective, we have invested in Tractor Beverages, a company that offers a range of organic carbonated and non-carbonated beverages via in-store “bubblers” that can facilitate refill options for consumers, similar to fountain beverages. We are also new members of the Green Sports Alliance, a partnership that will help us explore piloting reuse and refill delivery models in sports venues in the U.S.

One of the central challenges to supporting a closed loop for packaging is the fragmented landscape of the U.S. recycling system. According to The Recycling Partnership, there are more than 9,000 different community recycling programs in the U.S., each of which accept different formats and types of packaging materials. The material recovery facilities (MRFs) that serve these programs often differ in the materials they choose to accept based on how modernized the facility is and the end markets the MRF can sell recycled commodities to. In addition, we know that consumers need to be educated and inspired to recycle our products, which is why we are increasing the usage of the How2Recycle label across our portfolio of products and collaborating with the beverage industry to roll out labeling that encourages cap-on recycling of our PET bottles. Combining our dollars and voices in unique partnerships, we collaborate closely with a number of stakeholders – including industry groups, NGOs, investment firms and policy makers – in order to catalyze critical recycling infrastructure improvements and consumer education across North America.

KDP uses polypropylene in a wide variety of our products, from caps on our beverage bottles to our Mott’s applesauce cups. Polypropylene plastic rigid containers are now considered widely accepted in curbside recycling systems across North America, according to The Recycling Partnership’s National Recycling Database. However, many communities do not yet accept certain polypropylene containers, including coffee pods, for recycling. This is often due to outdated recycling infrastructure or lack of equipment that can effectively sort polypropylene plastic.

The Recycling Partnership estimates that polypropylene is the third-most prominent plastic in curbside recycling bins per household in the U.S. behind PET and HDPE. We believe it is critical to drive towards infrastructure and access improvements that accommodate the range of recyclable materials that are commonly used in the home. KDP co-founded and is the largest funder of The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, whose goal is to increase the quantity and quality of polypropylene recovered and recycled in the U.S.

Improvements also need to be made so that commonly accepted materials — such as PET bottles and aluminum cans — can complete a circular journey every time. To boost recycling rates and create a stronger supply of quality recycled PET, KDP invested alongside its beverage peers a collective $100 million to fund the American Beverage Association’s Every Bottle Back initiative. The program aims to modernize and improve community recycling through recycling infrastructure upgrades at local MRFs throughout the U.S. and supports “recycle right” behaviors through consumer education.

In Canada, KDP co-founded the Circular Plastics Taskforce, which is dedicated to advancing the circular economy by improving plastics recycling through the deployment of optimization solutions in recycling and processing facilities. To date, the taskforce has received more than $1 million in funding from the federal and Québec governments, plus $200,000 (CAD) in private funding, supporting pilot and research projects aimed at advancing the circular economy in Canada.

Beyond these coalitions, KDP is encouraging recycling behaviors by making “recycle right” instructions more visible on our packaging. This includes adding the How2Recycle label to our K-Cup pods, Core Hydration, Snapple and select Mott’s packages. We have also adjusted our packaging to reflect the diverse nature and challenges within our country’s recycling capabilities across jurisdictions – including adding qualifiers such as “Check locally — not recycled in many communities” to our K-Cup pods.

There are no uniform standards that recycling facilities must follow when determining what materials or products to accept. That is why we support smart policy solutions focused on efficient and equitable ways to increase material recovery, while reducing the economic and environmental costs of disposal. Our advocacy includes our support of a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program to generate strong environmental outcomes in an efficient and accountable manner, provide convenient services to consumers and move closer to a financially and operationally sustainable circular economy. KDP supports a national approach to EPR in order to avoid a patchwork of state-specific approaches that drive complexity, inefficiency and consumer confusion. However, in the absence of a national approach, we support well-designed EPR at the state level. In 2023, we became a founding member of the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a U.S. non-profit Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) established to administer and support the implementation of EPR laws for paper and packaging in the U.S. CAA has been selected as the single program steward in Colorado and was recently appointed to Maryland’s EPR Advisory Council. In addition, the organization is a top candidate for PRO selection in California in 2024 and well-positioned for additional states that adopt similar legislation in the future.