In today’s Sip & Savor, ABA President and Chief Executive Officer Katherine Lugar highlights the value of our industry’s intentionally designed bottles and the actions underway to increase their collection so they can be remade into new bottles, as intended:

Our industry knows how valuable and in demand our carefully designed, 100% recyclable beverage bottles are – and it’s why we want them all back. A recent piece in The Wall Street Journal points out that without the proper infrastructure in place, our “hot commodity” bottles can end up as waste in landfills or the environment instead of going back into the supply chain.

That’s why, the beverage industry is investing in critical infrastructure programs nationwide to close the loop and create a circular economy for our plastic. To date, we’ve invested in communities to help more than 300,000 households recycle nearly 693 million more pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic over a 10 year period. And, there’s more to come.

We’re also making sure consumers have the information they need to recycle properly through on-cap messages and a national public awareness campaign.

We applaud the recent efforts by Congress to invest $275 million in our municipal recycling programs and $75 million to help educate consumers on how to best recycle – and, look forward to the President signing this critical infrastructure package into law.

Our bottles are made to be remade, and we encourage everyone help us get #EveryBottleBack.