Today, The American Beverage Association proudly announced Big Bear, California as its next community investment under the Every Bottle Back initiative.  The $166,000 investment will provide 12,000 households with free, lidded curbside recycling carts and educational materials on recycling best practices.  

This unique collaboration with Big Bear’s Community Services District and The Recycling Partnership will increase the capacity of recyclables collected, improve recycling rates and help prevent plastic waste from ending up in Big Bear’s scenic environment.  

“We’re thrilled to be working with our partners to help Big Bear improve its recycling system to capture more of our recyclable bottles,” said Katherine Lugar, President and CEO of the American Beverage Association.  “This investment will help close the loop on our bottles and create a more circular economy for recycled materials throughout the region.”

The Every Bottle Back investment in Big Bear is estimated to yield 33 million new pounds of recyclables over 10 years, including 1.3 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 495,000 pounds of aluminum.  Additionally, we’re supporting improvements to the existing transfer station which will allow the region to accumulate and efficiently ship recyclables to Burrtec, a materials recovery facility (MRF) in San Bernardino County.

“The goal of California’s beverage companies is to build an efficient closed loop recycling system,” said Rick Rivas, Vice President - California at the American Beverage Association. “Through Every Bottle Back, we’re increasing the amount of bottles collected which allows us to use more recycled content and preserve the environment for generations to come.”

The Big Bear Community Services District investment is one of many steps the beverage industry is taking to get #EveryBottleBack.

For more information on the project, please click here.