Last week, America’s leading beverage companies marked one year of its landmark initiative, Every Bottle Back, to reduce its plastic footprint by increasing the collection of our valuable, 100% recyclable bottles so they can be remade into new bottles, as intended.  The first year of Every Bottle Back saw the initiation of modernization projects in Texas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin that will help more than 349,000 households recycle nearly 38 million new pounds of PET plastic over 10 years.

ABA’s president and chief executive, Katherine Lugar, discussed the future of the initiative with Duane Stanford of Beverage Digest.

From the piece:

“Now a year into the initiative, most of which fell during a pandemic, Every Bottle Back is close to announcing new recycling improvement projects in seven US cities.  Industry funding to modernize recycling infrastructure and educate residents in the communities will total almost $6 million, according to the ABA.  The seven programs will recover nearly 627 million new pounds of recycled PET over 10 years that could be used to make new bottles.  

Previously announced projects already underway in Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth), Oklahoma (Broken Arrow), and Wisconsin (Kenosha) will invest nearly $4 million to recover 38 million new pounds of recycled PET over 10 years, according to the ABA.  

All told, the programs will fund curbside recycling, consumer education programs to reduce materials cross-contamination, the reopening of a materials recovery facility, and modernization of a plastic reprocessor facility, according to the ABA.  The projects will lead to increased recycling of other plastics as well.  

“The impact is far greater than simply recovering bottles and cans,” Lugar said.

To learn more about the Every Bottle Back initiative, visit www.EveryBottleBack.org