In celebration of America Recycles Week, America’s leading beverage companies are highlighting their efforts to bring modernized recycling infrastructure to communities across the country through their groundbreaking Every Bottle Back initiative. Since 2019, Every Bottle Back has invested $12.5 million in 11 communities across the country to help more than 300,000 households recycle nearly 693 million more pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic over a 10 year period.

Spearheaded by American Beverage, Every Bottle Back is an initiative by The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo to reduce the beverage industry’s plastic footprint by improving the collection of the industry’s recyclable plastic bottles so that they can be remade into new bottles. America’s leading beverage companies are investing the equivalent of nearly a half-billion dollars through Every Bottle Back’s 10-year effort. 

“We launched Every Bottle Back with a simple goal in mind: decrease our industry’s use of new plastic by getting more of our carefully designed bottles back so they can be remade, as intended,” said Katherine Lugar, president and CEO of American Beverage. “We’re working with environmental partners and community leaders across the country to improve access to recycling and boost the collection of our recyclable plastic beverage bottles. This America Recycles Week, we are proud of the progress made through our unique public-private partnership and hope it will inspire others to seek innovative solutions to build a more sustainable future for generations to come.” 

This effort is supported by environmental and sustainability leaders across the country including: Closed Loop Partners, the leading investment firm focused on the development of the circular economy and recycling infrastructure in the United States; The Recycling Partnership, which solves for circularity by mobilizing the people, data and solutions across the value chain to unlock the environmental and economic benefits of recycling and a circular economy; and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which is helping measure the industry’s progress in reducing its plastic footprint.

“Closing the loop on plastics is a critical part of our work to advance the circular economy. Working together with key stakeholders in the Every Bottle Back initiative, and across the public and private sectors, has made it possible to reach significant milestones in building circular supply chains for the beverage industry,“ says Ron Gonen, Founder & CEO of Closed Loop Partners. “Investing in modernizing recycling infrastructure helps ensure that valuable plastic bottles are pulled back into supply chains at end of life, and never go to waste. On America Recycles Day, we celebrate the progress made thus far and look forward to our continued work to strengthen local circular economy infrastructure and create a waste-free future for the beverage industry.”

“Our collaborative model brings all of the parties together to solve recycling and circularity challenges that cannot be addressed alone,” said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership. “In our seven-year history, public-private partnerships like Every Bottle Back have enabled us to deliver more than 1 million recycling carts to communities while capturing 500 million new pounds of quality recyclables that can then be made into new products and packaging, creating a critical supply of materials for American manufacturers. It is through partnerships like these that we continue to create stronger, healthier, and cleaner communities while supporting more sustainable and resilient recycling programs.”

The beverage industry has committed funding through Every Bottle Back to support 15 initial recycling projects to optimize recycling access, education and infrastructure, including 11 community projects that were launched in 2020 and 2021:

 

1. Baltimore, Maryland: This $10 million private-public investment in Baltimore consisted of a $3.6 million total investment from The Recycling Partnership, which included $1.65 million from the beverage industry, a plastic resin donation for recycling carts from Dow Packing & Specialty Plastics, and lidded rollout carts manufactured by Rehrig Pacific, as well as a $3 million investment from Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Fund. This first-of-its-kind collaboration helped Baltimore provide free recycling carts to nearly 200,000 households to collect and process more recyclable materials, and is expected to bring in an estimated 16 million new pounds of PET over 10 years. As part of the effort, the city also launched a recycling education campaign to inform the community about the new carts and what can and cannot be recycled.
2. Clyde, Ohio: Evergreen, a plastics reclaimer and recycled PET (rPET) plastic manufacturing facility was selected for a $5 million investment – half from American Beverage in partnership with Closed Loop Partners and the other half from Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Fund. The investment contributed to Evergreen’s expansion project to build a new facility for rPET processing which is estimated to yield at least 600 million pounds of rPET food-grade pellets over a 10-year period – rPET that can be used in the manufacturing of new beverage bottles.
3. Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: As Every Bottle Back’s first investment, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex received $3 million to upgrade the Balcones Material Recovery Facility (MRF). This investment improves the sorting and processing of recyclable plastics, expands recycling access for more than 50,000 residents and supports recycling educational efforts for single-family and multifamily homes in Fort Worth and 230 surrounding communities. These investments are expected to yield 3 million pounds of newly recovered PET plastic annually.
4. Louisville, Kentucky: Every Bottle Back partnered with The Recycling Partnership, the Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC), and Unilever’s Love Beauty and Planet brand for a $1,071,000 investment to help fund 28,000 large, lidded, rolling recycling carts to residents as well as free recycling education materials to 600,000 residents in Louisville. The investment is expected to deliver 1.4 million new pounds of recycled PET over 10 years.
5. Ann Arbor, Michigan: This $800,000 investment helped rebuild Ann Arbor's MRF. In partnership with Closed Loop Partners, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and Recycle Ann Arbor, the project is improving the collection and sorting of recyclables and is expected to yield an estimated 7 million pounds of new PET plastic over 10 years.
6. Kenosha, Wisconsin: The city of Kenosha received a $520,000 investment to help more than 32,000 households convert from an outdated plastic bag recycling system to 96-gallon, curbside recycling carts. Over the next 10 years, this investment is estimated to yield 1.86 million new pounds of PET plastic.
7. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma: Every Bottle Back’s $390,500 investment in Broken Arrow helped launch a new curbside recycling program and provide 35,000 households with carts and recycling education materials. The investment is estimated to collect 5.8 million pounds of new PET plastic over 10 years.
8. Central Ohio: In partnership with The Recycling Partnership and Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), two communities in Central Ohio -- Pleasant Township and the city of Whitehall -- received investments totaling $116,000 to help pay for new recycling carts for 7,300 households. This investment will lead to the estimated collection of 592,000 news pounds of fully recyclable PET plastic over 10 years.
9. Big Bear, California: The city of Big Bear was most recently selected for a $166,000 curbside recycling investment in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership. This investment provides 12,000 households with free, lidded curbside carts estimated to yield 1.3 million pounds of new recycled PET plastic over 10 years.
10. Gwinnett County, Georgia: Every Bottle Back invested $115,000 in Gwinnett County to help fund a recycling awareness campaign and encourage residents to request free curbside carts to increase recycling rates and decrease contamination. This investment is expected to yield more than 1.3 million new pounds of recycled PET over a 10 year period.
11. Marquette County, Michigan: A second Every Bottle Back investment in Michigan, in partnership with the Recycling Partnership, helped Marquette County provide free higher-capacity recycling carts to 4,450 households in the Ishpeming, Marquette and Negaunee Townships plus free recycling education materials to 66,500 residents in the county. The $66,400 investment is expected to yield 317,000 new pounds of recyclable PET plastic over 10 years.

 

The Every Bottle Back initiative builds on the latest commitments by the beverage industry to reduce its plastic footprint, such as support for federal legislation to bolster recycling education and improve recycling infrastructure, and American Beverage’s joining of the U.S. Plastics Pact to work toward a circular economy for plastics.

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View a PDF of this press release here.