Pepsico makes all renewable "PET" bottle

Pepsi has unveiled a PET-type bottle produced entirely from renewable resources, although it is not indicating how it has achieved the look-alike molecule for the polymer. All it says in its release is that: Combining biological and chemical processes, PepsiCo has identified methods to create a molecular structure that is identical to petroleum-based PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which results in a bottle that looks, feels and protects its product identically to existing PET beverage containers.

PepsiCo says its "green" bottle is 100% recyclable and far surpasses existing industry technologies. The bottle is made from bio-based raw materials, including switch grass, pine bark and corn husks.

In future, the company expects to broaden the renewable sources used to create the "green" bottle to include orange peels, potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its foods business.

The announcement has sparked plenty of interest amongst bio-based economy followers, given the scale of Pepsi's operations. PepsiCo will pilot production of the new bottle in 2012.  Upon successful completion of the pilot, the company intends to move directly to full-scale commercialization.