American multinational food and beverage company PepsiCo has announced the replacement of plastic rings on its beverage multipacks with paper-based solutions across the US and Canada.

The company said that it is the first beverage company in North America to introduce a paper-based solution for multipacks that have traditionally featured plastic rings.

Following this announcement, PepsiCo Beverages North America will begin rolling out the new paperboard designs across the US later this year. 

The designs will be introduced in a phased manner, with a regional approach.

The effort builds on the beverage company’s existing progress in Canada, where the move to switch to paperboard designs has already begun.

This transition to recyclable paper packaging will be implemented for PepsiCo’s various brands, including Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, Starry, MTN DEW, and Gatorade, among other branded products.

PepsiCo’s 7Up product in Canada will also be a part of this change.

The new paperboard packs, according to the company, feature a consumer-friendly branded design and will be easy to accommodate on marketplace shelves.

The latest move comes as part of the company’s PepsiCo Positive (pep+) sustainable packaging initiative.

The pep+ effort aims to ensure that PepsiCo’s packaging ‘never becomes waste’ and contributes to a circular economy system.

The initiative also includes PepsiCo’s commitment to achieve a 50% reduction in the use of virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving across its global beverage and convenience foods portfolio by 2030, versus the 2020 baseline.

This latest multipack effort will help the company remove millions of pounds of plastics from its packaging in North America over the next few years while strengthening its packaging circularity efforts.

Last month, PepsiCo India announced plans to introduce 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate-made bottles for its carbonated beverage category, as part of its pep+ effort.