PepsiCo-Partnered AI Recycling Assistant Soon to Hit Malls With Gamified Experience
PepsiCo is making recycling easier for its employees and consumers. The company is deploying an AI-powered assistant to improve recycling accuracy, guiding users on appropriately disposing of their containers.
The technology will eventually make its way to several public locations, including select malls, airports, stadiums, universities, and recreational areas. The company is also placing it at several of its office locations for the initial launch.
Using the Oscar Sort AI system, consumers will be able to tap into a gamified experience to identify if containers need to be washed or cleaned out before disposal and where/when they can be discarded.
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Emma Stradling, senior director of sustainability for PepsiCo Beverages North America, said the assistant is part of the company’s pep+ Partners for Tomorrow efforts to scale sustainability capabilities to customers.
“By identifying strategic partners and customer locations where Oscar Sort installation can drive impact, we're aiming to help our customer partners improve their recycling accuracy and increase waste diversion rates at their locations to keep valuable materials in the supply chain,” she said.
Sustainability in Action
The company also said this builds on ongoing sustainability efforts such as its partnership with Replenysh for material recovery, increasing transparency, and driving circularity in the back-end.
PepsiCo’s other recent sustainability strategies include replacing the plastic rings traditionally used on its multi-pack bottles with a paperboard design — an effort launched last year for its Pepsi, Pepsi Zero, MTN Dew, Starry, Gatorade, and 7Up brands in Canada.
PepsiCo’s Pep+ goals look to reduce virgin plastic from nonrenewable sources by 50% by 2030, which would eliminate millions of pounds of plastics from the supply chain while enabling packaging circularity.
