Every Bottle Back awards recycling investment to Villa Park, Illinois

Washington-based American Beverage has selected the city of Villa Park, Illinois, to receive $97,500 as part of its Every Bottle Back initiative to improve recycling rates in the city.

According to a news release from American Beverage, the investment will help to provide 65-gallon recycling carts free of charge to Villa Park residents to increase collection of recyclables. The Recycling Partnership, Washington, plans to work with Villa Park to help deliver carts and increase recycling participation in Villa Park.

“The Village of Villa Park is looking forward to working with The Recycling Partnership and Lakeshore Recycling Service to improve our curbside recycling program,” says Matthew Harline, village manager of Villa Park. “Our current program lacks any uniformity and results in trash and recycling getting into the wrong processing stream. The carts should increase participation and improve the amount of material actually being recycled that is intended for recycling.”

Brad Harden, president of the Illinois Beverage Association, says new high-capacity recycling carts should help Villa Park residents to recycle more materials, including bottles and cans, to be recycled and ultimately remade into new products.

American Beverage says this is the second Every Bottle Back investment announced in Illinois, with a previous investment made in LaSalle, Illinois. Funds for this investment are part of a total Every Bottle Back commitment of $780,000 to improve residential recycling.

“American Beverage is excited to build upon the progress of Every Bottle Back in Illinois with this new investment in Villa Park,” says Kevin Keane, interim president and chief executive officer of American Beverage. “Making investments to improve residential recycling will help us to collect more of our 100 percent recyclable bottles and cans so they can be remade as intended. This announcement is possible thanks to the commitment of leaders in Villa Park and we are grateful for their partnership.”

American Beverage says the investment will directly benefit almost 22,000 Villa Park residents across 6,500 households. Over the next decade, the investment is expected to yield 8.6 million pounds of new recyclables, including 335,400 pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 111,800 pounds of aluminum.

Every Bottle Back has invested in 31 projects so far. To date, Every Bottle Back has received more than $22 million in committed funding. American Beverage says these investments will help to yield more than 726 million additional pounds of PET recycled over 10 years.