VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. – American Beverage today announced a $150,000 grant in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership to the Van Buren Conservation District (VBCD) to expand and enhance recycling access across Van Buren County. This grant will help upgrade infrastructure at four township transfer stations by adding new drop-off recycling capacity for more than 17,000 residents.

“This investment will make it easier for Van Buren County families to recycle bottles and cans, and help those materials get collected and remade into new products as intended,” said Derek Bajema, President and CEO of the Michigan Beverage Association. “By working hand-in-hand with local and state leaders, we’re delivering meaningful results that improve recycling systems and reduce waste in communities across Michigan.” 

The grant complements funding from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) along with matching contributions from VBCD and the participating townships. Together, these contributions will support the construction, site development and installation of compactors at each transfer station, creating accessible and modernized drop-off recycling sites that will support the entire county.

Over the next decade, the new infrastructure upgrades are projected to divert more than 4 million pounds of recyclables from landfills, including an estimated 156,000 pounds of PET plastic and 52,000 pounds of aluminum – valuable materials that can be used to produce new beverage containers.

This marks the 12th Every Bottle Back project in Michigan, building on the more than $1.7 million invested to date across 11 communities including Ann Arbor, Bay City, Livonia, Trenton, Ypsilanti Township and six communities in Marquette County.

This project is the latest from Every Bottle Back—an initiative of The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—that launched in 2019. In total, the investments across 65 communities are estimated to yield more than 725 million new pounds of recycled PET and 46 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade.

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