PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – American Beverage announced today a $57,200 investment through its Every Bottle Back initiative to support the Town of Portsmouth as it transitions to a new organized waste and recycling collection system. The funding, delivered in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership, will help provide standardized 95-gallon recycling carts to 4,400 households and support a public education and outreach campaign aimed at boosting recycling participation and effectiveness.

“This investment will help transition Portsmouth to a modern collection system and give residents the tools and information they need to recycle more and recycle better,” said Peg Sweeney, executive director of the Rhode Island Beverage Association. “Standard, modern recycling helps communities and makes it easier for more of our bottles and cans in Portsmouth to be collected and remade as intended.”

Portsmouth’s new recycling approach marks a significant shift from its prior free-market collection model to a single-hauler system that includes both trash and recycling services. Under the new system, residents will receive uniform, city-issued carts to streamline collection operations and improve the efficiency and consistency of curbside recycling across the community. Portsmouth will also offer households the option to opt out of curbside service and instead deliver their waste and recyclables directly to the local transfer station.

This project is expected to significantly boost recycling rates and material recovery. Over the next 10 years, the improvements are projected to result in more than 15 million new pounds of recyclables, including more than 600,000 pounds of PET plastic and over 200,000 pounds of aluminum – materials used to make the beverage industry's bottles and cans.

This project is the latest from Every Bottle Back—an initiative of The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—that has reached more than 14.5 million Americans through $30 million in funding nationwide since 2019. In total, the investments across 55 communities are estimated to yield more than 711 million new pounds of recycled PET and 45 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade. 

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