PepsiCo, we’ve been reading a lot about you lately, and we like where you’re going.  At KissMyCountry we’re not shy about recognizing companies who are saving the planet.  We voice criticism, too – don’t get the wrong impression.  But you’re doing a great job – first with the Pepsi Refresh Project, which we’ve written about as well as interviewed Ben Jervey, Planet Ambassador.  Partnering with GOOD was a wonderful idea, and it’s great to see your CMO join GOOD’s Advisory Board.

But we really like your latest – the Dream Machine and your goal to recycle 400 million plastic and aluminum containers a year.  And we like the way you’re partnering with Waste Management and Keep America Beautiful.  Both have been saving our planet for a long time and we’re glad to see they’re involved.  And building in the incentives is a great idea – nice touch, PepsiCo.  We know it’s a first step, and we know you have your critics – but we have hope for the Dream Machine.   One hope is that one of the 3,000 kiosks you’re setting up this year lands in our neck of the woods – we’d be honored and we’re waiting.

We also hope the program grows and grows and grows.  We hope you collect a lot of plastic and aluminum that wasn’t going to get recycled otherwise – and we hope you collect more than 400,000 containers a year.   We hope you collect so many containers that you don’t have to make any new ones for a year.

We know that’s ambitious.  But we have dreams too.  We dream about saving the places we love.  And PepsiCo, you – and Waste Management and Keep America Beautiful –  just helped us all take a step in that direction.