Every Bottle Back grant targets beverage container recycling

American Beverage, a Washington-based trade group that represents the soft drinks industry, says it is helping to provide $728,000 to support the city of Syracuse, New York, as it modifies its recycling services to include automated curbside collection.

The “Every Bottle Back” grant, made in cooperation with The Recycling Partnership, Washington, provides “every single-family household in Syracuse with free, upgraded 95-gallon recycling carts,” states American Beverage.

The trade group says the grant also will support residential educational outreach on what materials can be recycled using the new carts.

“Our bottles and cans are made to be remade,” says American Beverage President and CEO Kevin Keane. “Whether redeemed or recycled at home, New York’s beverage companies want our valuable containers back. These upgrades in Syracuse will go a long way to make recycling more accessible for residents and more effective at keeping recyclables out of landfills where they don’t belong.”

The transition from 18-gallon bins to the new 95-gallon wheeled carts increases recycling capacity for households by more than 400 percent says American Beverage. The group estimates that capacity boost could yield 24,350 “new” tons of recyclable material over the next decade.

Additional material collected could include some 950 tons of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and more than 315 tons of aluminum each year. “With more recycled materials, the beverage industry can reduce the use of virgin plastic and create more bottles out of 100 percent recycled content,” adds the organization.

“Modernizing recycling infrastructure is only one piece of the puzzle,” says Keane. “These efforts must be combined with a well-designed collection policy including a modernized deposit system. New York’s beverage companies look forward to working with state leaders to advance policy that can help achieve our collective goal of reducing the use of new plastic and creating a circular economy.”

American Beverage says the investment is part of 67 initial projects that brand owners The Coca-Cola Co., Keurig Dr. Pepper and PepsiCo and their “sustainability partners” (Closed Loop Partners, The Recycling Partnership and the World Wildlife Fund) have committed to fund through the Every Bottle Back initiative.

To date, the beverage industry has committed $39.5 million in funding nationwide, says the group, with those investments estimated to yield nearly 458,000 new tons of recycled PET and some 43,500 additional tons of recycled aluminum throughout the next decade.