Los Angeles County is looking to take Coke and Pepsi to court over the soda giants’ environmental impact. 

The county announced this week that it has filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company, as well as Pepsi Bottling Ventures and Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, alleging those companies have tried to deceive the public about the recyclability of and potential health issues emanating from plastic bottles.

“PepsiCo and Coca-Cola – the top plastic polluters in the world – have littered the County of Los Angeles … with their plastic bottles and engaged in a disinformation campaign to make consumers falsely believe that purchasing their products in single-use plastic bottles is an environmentally responsible choice,” the complaint states, noting that plastic is the primary source of litter in California and has impacted the county’s water sources and natural resources.

BevNET Insiders can access the full story for all of the details on the dispute.

Sober October is nearly behind us and Dry January is on the way, but younger drinkers don’t need incentives to put down the booze. That was one of the takeaways from a panel hosted this week by Distill Ventures on Adult Non-Alc (ANA) numbers and trends.

🦜 As ANA globally picks up, consumers are discovering new products through word of mouth and specialty stores, but price and taste remain barriers to entry. 

🍸 Gen Zers in particular are reaching for non-alc cocktails, but for ANA consumers across the board, price outweighs taste as the top deterrent: 60% of survey respondents said they don't think that RTD mocktails are good value, according to one analyst. 

🏴‍☠️ Making your ANA product easy to find is particularly important to younger generations as  they’re more likely to pick up something else to drink instead of hunting for obscure bottles.

Learn more trends and tips from top analysts in the sector.

Grab a favorite beverage and settle in for a lively exploration of today's hottest category trends. In this new series, Cargill subject-matter experts spill the tea on emerging trends, new research and innovative solutions to help you shake up your corner of the market. Learn more

On this episode of CPG Week, the team breaks down Keurig Dr Pepper’s (KDP) $1 billion deal to acquire GHOST Energy. This includes a discussion of why this move is surprising when KDP’s other energy category investments come into consideration as well as how the integration of GHOST has the potential to open new distribution opportunities for emerging category brands. The team also talks about Olipop’s growing list of sports team partnerships and how it is putting together a novel formula for category disruption. Later, the chatter turns to all of the insights within Whole Foods Market’s recent 2025 trends list.

Listen to the episode now.

• Inside a dispute over naturally flavored ginger ale
  
• Details on the upcoming relaunch of an iconic energy drink
• News of a hazardous chemical detected in canned coconut water

Become a BevNET & Nosh Insider to gain access to exclusive Insider-only newsletter content, as well as all digital content on BevNET.com and NOSH.com. Tap into our video archives, including Community Call and educational series, unlock event and job listing discounts, and engage with our community of  food and beverage professionals.