A recent article published in The Hill discusses the current state of recycling and highlights how Every Bottle Back serves as a new model for industry, environmental and sustainability groups and municipalities to work together to increase collection and strengthen recycling programs across the country.
The goal of Every Bottle Back is simple: decrease the use of new plastic by increasing the collection of plastic bottles so they can be remade into new bottles. This will reduce the reliance on new plastic and ensure our bottles don't wind up in places they shouldn't, like lakes and rivers or wasted in landfills.
We are excited to partner with World Wildlife Fund, The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners to invest and improve recycling programs so that more plastic is recycled and remade into new bottles. Together, we will work to improve community recycling infrastructure and access, measure and track our progress in using less new plastic and increase consumer awareness surrounding our recyclable plastic bottles.
From the piece:
“’What you can do is make sure that when companies are making sustainability pledges,’ says Keefe Harrison, CEO of a national nonprofit called The Recycling Partnership, ‘they're backing them up with the appropriate amount of money and action that it takes to get their goal done.’
For example, in late October, the Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo announced a partnership with World Wildlife Fund, The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners for a program that will make sure plastic bottles are ‘recovered after use and remade into new bottles.’ Harrison explains, ‘The beverage industry cannot deliver on its promises of sustainability packaging without serious improvements to the current U.S. recycling system.’
Including the matching grants and investors, the initiative committed to investing $400 million in American recycling programs so the amount of new plastic used to bring beverages to market can be reduced, according to Katherine Lugar, CEO of the American Beverage Association.”
Visit EveryBottleBack.org to learn more.