New York AG James Sues PepsiCo Over Plastic Pollution Along Buffalo River

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against food and beverage giant PepsiCo Inc. accusing the company of harming the public and the environment with its single-use plastic packaging. Ms. James’s office announced the “historic and groundbreaking” lawsuit in a Nov. 15 press release, after PepsiCo’s single-use plastics were allegedly found floating along the Buffalo River. The lawsuit was filed in Buffalo, New York, and lists PepsiCo and its subsidiaries, Frito-Lay Inc. and Frito-Lay North America Inc., as defendants. It states that Ms. James’s office found that single-use plastic—including beverage bottles, bottle caps, and snack food wrappers—produced by the beverage corporation “contributes significantly” to high levels of plastic pollution found along the Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie, and that such pollution is contaminating drinking water and harming wildlife....