On America Recycles Day, the non-alcoholic beverage industry reaffirms its longstanding commitment to further minimizing its environmental impact, and is making it easier for consumers to do the same.
"From our 100 percent recyclable packaging to our efforts to minimize waste and support recycling programs, our industry is leading the way and doing our part to reduce our environmental impact," says Susan Neely, American Beverage Association president/CEO. "Ours is an industry standing together in pursuit of solutions to environmental challenges in communities throughout America."
The beverage industry supports efficient recycling infrastructure, and it is working throughout the country to help make recycling easier for consumers - both at home and on-the-go.
In Massachusetts, industry is working together with communities through the Massachusetts Recycling Challenge to provide technical assistance to implement a Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) waste system. PAYT provides an immediate and significant incentive to households that reduce trash and increase recycling by charging residents a fee for each unit of waste they discard, instead of a fixed fee per household. The Challenge team also is working with key cities to establish public space recycling systems to capture beverage containers and other recyclables from town squares, public parks and other public locations.
On America Recycles Day in 2012, the American Beverage Association's Public Space Recycling Pilot was launched in Palm Beach County, Florida, with nearly 130 recycling bins placed in key locations - including parks, boardwalks, marinas, sports fields and beaches. One year later, the pilot has already reduced public space litter by 75 percent and significantly reduced trash disposal and increased recycling in all locations.
ABA member companies are also working in their communities on efforts to support and promote recycling, including:
The Coca-Cola Company is committed to advancing recycling programs. Through community recycling initiatives with organizations like Keep America Beautiful, Coca-Cola has placed more than 220,000 recycle bins in North America since 2008. This is in support of Coca-Cola's goal to recover 50 percent of the equivalent bottles and cans it places in market by 2015. In addition, Coca-Cola diverts more than 95 percent of solid waste from landfills in its North American facilities.
After surpassing its original goal, Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) raised the bar higher with a new target to recycle 90 percent of manufacturing waste by 2015. In 2012, DPS recycled 82 percent of its manufacturing solid waste, diverting more than 32,000 tons of waste from landfills. Also last year, DPS conserved 15 million pounds of plastic in 2012 through PET lightweighting initiatives. In addition to its own recycling practices, the company is taking steps to promote consumer recycling, as well. Earlier this year, DPS partnered with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) to fund the placement of recycling bins that will provide citizens visiting public parks greater access to recycling systems. This investment in consumer recycling will help increase recycling in city, regional and state public parks across the country.
Nestle Waters North America (NWNA) reports bottled water in PET packaging is the most recycled item in nationwide curbside collection programs, recycled at a rate of 39 percent. That said, NWNA is committed to improving plastic beverage bottle recycling rates to 60 percent by 2018. The company works with Recycling Reinvented, a coalition of recycling stakeholders and other businesses aiming to make it easier for people to recycle more consumer packaging of all types, not just beverage bottles. Collecting more plastic for recycling would allow NWNA, already with three brands, Resource®, Arrowhead® and Deer Park® brands packaged in .5 liter water bottles composed of 50 percent recycled plastic (rPET), to use more recycled content in more bottles.
The PepsiCo Recycling initiative, introduced on Earth Day 2010, brings innovative recycling solutions to colleges and universities, K-12 schools, gas stations and popular retail locations across North America with the goal of increasing the U.S. beverage container recycling rate to 50 percent by 2018. Since the program launched, more than 4 million pounds of beverage containers-approximately 75 million plastic bottles and aluminum cans-have been recycled through Dream Machine kiosks and recycling bins. More than 600,000 K-12 students in schools from 34 states have participated in the PepsiCo Recycle Rally and 70 colleges and universities nationwide team with PepsiCo to increase recycling on campus. By increasing availability of recycled PET (rPET), PepsiCo has helped sustain its commitment to using rPET in its beverage bottles, making it one of the largest users of food-grade post-consumer PET. To learn more, please visit PepsiCoRecycling.com.
The Sunny Delight Beverages Co. (SDBC) remains committed to sustainability and the company will continue to listen, learn and lead in this arena. All five SDBC manufacturing plants continue to maintain zero waste to landfill--diverting 41 million pounds of waste since setting its zero waste goal in 2007. Externally, SDBC is continuing its partnership with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB) and this school year the partnership is focused on helping Cincinnati schools implement single stream recycling. SDBC's ongoing partnership with KCB is helping local schools foster a generation of environmental stewards.
