ALBANY, N.Y. New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James introduced a lawsuit in opposition to PepsiCo Inc. on Wednesday, accusing the soda-and-snack meals big of polluting the surroundings and endangering public well being after its single-use plastics had been discovered alongside the Buffalo River.
The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court docket goals to require PepsiCo and its subsidiaries, Frito-Lay Inc. and Frito-Lay North America Inc., to scrub up its mess, the place its single-use plastic packaging together with meals wrappers and plastic bottles have discovered a method to the shores of the Buffalo River and watershed, contaminating consuming water provide for town of Buffalo.
No firm is simply too massive to make sure that their merchandise don’t injury the environment and public well being. All New Yorkers have a primary proper to scrub water, but PepsiCos irresponsible packaging and advertising and marketing endanger Buffalos water provide, surroundings, and public well being, James stated in a press release.
PepsiCo is the only largest identifiable contributor to the plastic waste contaminating the Buffalo River, in accordance with the lawsuit. Of the 1,916 items of plastic waste containing an identifiable model, 17.1% had been produced by PepsiCo, in accordance with a 2022 survey performed by the state Workplace of the Legal professional Basic.
Microplastics have additionally been present in fish species which can be identified to inhabit Lake Erie and the Buffalo River, in addition to Buffalo’s consuming water provide, in accordance with the lawsuit. Publicity to these chemical substances can carry a variety of adversarial well being results.
The Buffalo River was as soon as thought-about one of the polluted rivers in the USA till the states Division of Environmental Conservation stepped in with a remedial motion plan in 1989 to revive the rivers ecosystem.
Our Buffalo group fought for over 50 years to safe tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to scrub up poisonous air pollution, enhance habitat, and restore communities across the Buffalo River, stated Jill Jedlicka, govt director of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, in a press release. We won’t sit idly by as our waterways turn out to be polluted once more, this time from ever-growing single-use plastic air pollution.
By the lawsuit, James can also be calling for PepsiCo to cease promoting or distributing any product within the Buffalo area with out warning customers in regards to the potential well being and environmental dangers of its packaging. It additionally seeks to cease the corporate from contributing to the general public nuisance it’s inflicting within the Buffalo area by contributing to plastic air pollution, and to develop a plan to cut back the quantity of its single-use plastics from getting into the Buffalo River.
PepsiCo, which is headquartered in New York, produces and packages not less than 85 totally different beverage manufacturers together with Gatorade and Pepsi merchandise, and not less than 25 snack meals manufacturers that largely are available in single-use plastic containers.
In previous years, the corporate has repeatedly pledged that it will make significant strides to cut back its use of plastics. The lawsuit alleges that the other is occurring, and that PepsiCo misled the general public about its efforts to fight plastic air pollution.
Electronic mail messages left for a spokesperson at PepsiCo weren’t instantly returned.
The lawsuit additionally seeks disgorgement, civil penalties, and restitution.