US Chamber Foundation expands Beyond 34 recycling initiative

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Washington, has announced the expansion of its Beyond 34: Recycling and Recovery for a New Economy initiative. The expansion includes applying the Beyond 34 model in a second region and developing a suite of online tools to allow any community to implement the model.

“The Beyond 34 model brings together a community’s private and public sectors and equips them with solutions to increase and improve recycling,” says Marc DeCourcey, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. “The business community is increasingly setting ambitious waste reduction goals. The tremendous engagement we’ve received for Beyond 34 from the private sector shows that companies not only work within their own operations to reduce waste—they also want to help U.S. communities reduce their impact on the environment and boost local economies.”

The Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service at Arizona State University (ASU) will provide analysis and develop tools to help communities increase and improve their recycling efforts.

“To achieve real progress and develop a stronger future, everyone must bring their expertise and resources to the table,” says Patricia Reiter, executive director of the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service at ASU. “We’re looking forward to enabling communities to advance their recycling efforts and move the country that much closer to breaking through the 34 percent recycling rate.”

The expansion is possible through the support of the Walmart Foundation, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and the Plastics Industry Association.

“The Beyond 34 initiative works to improve the ecosystem of waste prevention, reuse and recycling by first connecting leaders across the community,” says Karrie Denniston, senior director for sustainability for the Walmart Foundation. “We look forward to seeing how these communities can solve problems, test ideas and ultimately see a measurable change in the rate of materials being recycled.”

A recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found that in a single year, recycling and reuse activities in the United States account for 757,000 jobs, $36.6 billion in wages and $6.7 billion in tax revenue. Still, a number of challenges to recycling remain, such as falling commodity prices, contaminated recycling streams, strained government budgets and fewer markets for materials, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation says. Applying the Beyond 34 model helps communities overcome these challenges.