Earlier this month, we announced Broken Arrow, Oklahoma as the second regional investment under Every Bottle Back -- the beverage industry’s breakthrough, nationwide initiative to improve the collection of our 100% recyclable plastic beverage bottles.

The American Beverage Association, in partnership with our leading environmental partners, are excited to announce that the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin has been selected as the next regional investment under this initiative!  

Currently, Kenosha’s valuable recyclable materials are collected through an outdated plastic bag recycling system that end up being unnecessarily landfilled because the local materials recovery facility (MRF) does not accept bagged recyclables.  Our new investment will modernize the current infrastructure to support a more efficient and safe recycling system estimated to yield 54 million pounds of new recyclables, including 2.1 million new pounds of PET, over the next 10 years.

As Kelly McDowell of the Wisconsin Beverage Association states, “This investment will preserve our environment and ensure the Kenosha Area remains a top, year-round destination by ensuring that valuable and recyclable materials, like our plastic beverage bottles, don’t end up as litter on the shoreline or as waste in landfills.”

This $520,000 investment will:

• Modernize the current plastic bag recycling system to 96-gallon, curbside recycling carts.  More than 32,000 recycling carts will be delivered to households in Kenosha.
• Improve the safety of sanitation workers as the new recycling carts will be lifted and dumped into trucks via an automated arm instead of the current labor intensive, manual collection.
• Deliver recycling materials to every home helping to increase recycling rates and decrease contamination.

Environmental stewardship and local jobs are just a few of the many benefits of this investment.  “When we know what we can and can’t recycle, we keep recyclables out of landfills and waterways, decrease greenhouse gases, support local jobs and reduce the need to create more products out of virgin materials,” stated Keefe Harrison, founder and chief executive of The Recycling Partnership

Katherine Lugar, ABA president and chief executive, explains the value of the partnership with the city of Kenosha and The Recycling Partnership stating, “Together, we’ll work towards our shared goal of creating a truly circular economy in which our beverage bottles are collected, recycled and remade into new bottles, as intended, meaning less new plastic in our environment.” 

Kenosha’s Every Bottle Back investment is the third of regional investments announced with more to come!  To learn more about this investment, check out this article from Kenosha News.