Bee'ah, the Middle East's award-winning sustainability leader, has partnered with PepsiCo to help the company meet its goal of collecting and recycling 100 percent Aquafina plastic packaging generated in the UAE by 2021.

The pledge supports the UAE's target of diverting 75% of total waste from landfills, as well as PepsiCo's ongoing efforts to eliminate, recycle and reinvent for a more sustainable food system. Dubai Refreshment Company, PepsiCo's local bottling partner, will help achieve this ambitious target.

Bee'ah will manage the storage, transportation, and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics at their Material Recovery Facility (MRF) as part of the agreement.

With an annual capacity of over 600,000 tonnes, Bee'ah's MRF is one of the Middle East's largest and most successful producers of plastic recyclables. To strengthen waste segregation and collection, the mass collection project will make use of Bee'ah's extensive network of recyclables collection systems in strategic locations, towns, malls, and other locations in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.

Bee'ah will also use automated data capture, a measuring device, and GPS tracking to track and report the progress of PepsiCo's recyclables to ensure traceability.

“As the Middle East's sustainability leader, Bee'ah is leading the charge for a circular economy and zero-waste goals in the UAE and wider region,” said HE Khaled Al Huraimel, group CEO of Bee'ah.

"Through Bee'ah's holistic approach to integrated waste management, this collaboration with PepsiCo tackles plastic contamination, and we are proud to assist companies in achieving their environmental, social, and governance goals while the waste diversion away from landfills in the UAE."

“We are proud to be working with Bee'ah to achieve our sustainability targets and work towards a stronger and healthier tomorrow for us all,” said Aamer Sheikh, president and general manager of PepsiCo Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. To achieve scalable and economically viable solutions, we believe there is an opportunity to transform how the world creates, distributes, uses, and disposes of foods and beverages.

“Moving from a linear to a circular economy approach is needed to create an environment where plastics never become waste. This entails increasing recycling rates, increasing recycled content in packaging, and increasing packaging recyclability, allowing us to reuse packaging rather than discard it. The UAE is working to create a more sustainable climate and infrastructure, and we're dedicated to helping them achieve their goals through creativity, active collaborations, and stakeholder engagement.”

Bee'ah will also use its group recycling incentive scheme, Bee'ah Rewards, which uses a blockchain-powered mobile app to monitor recyclers' deposits of plastic bottles at each of Bee'ah's collection points, to enable customers to join PepsiCo's commitment to sustainability.

Every month, the top Bee'ah Rewards recyclers are entered to win prizes such as electronic devices, gift cards, and more. Bee'ah School of Environment, an environmental education programme that has reached over 250,000 students and 6,000 teachers in the UAE, will continue to raise awareness among UAE youth to encourage greater public involvement in plastic recycling.

By 2025, PepsiCo wants to reduce the amount of virgin plastic in its beverage industry by 35 percent globally. PepsiCo also plans to make all of its packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable by 2025, and to increase recycled content in its plastics packaging to 25% by then. PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation have committed more than $65 million to improve recycling globally since 2018.

Bee'ah, which is driving the UAE's sustainability agenda, has a 76 percent waste diversion rate in Sharjah, the highest in the Middle East, and is on track to hit 100 percent once the UAE's first waste-to-energy facility, and one of the first in the country, is completed.

Bee'ah's state-of-the-art Waste Management Complex houses some of the region's most advanced recycling and waste treatment facilities, supporting a circular economy.