America's Beverage Industry Celebrates America Recycles Day

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On America Recycles Day and every day, the non-alcoholic beverage industry is committed to further minimizing its environmental footprint by reducing, reusing and recycling.

"Our industry's commitment to recycling shows not only through our 100 percent recyclable packaging, but also through our efforts to minimize waste and to support recycling programs," said Susan Neely, American Beverage Association president and CEO.

The non-alcoholic beverage industry's containers are 100 percent recyclable. As an industry, we are also increasing use of post-consumer recycled materials, reducing waste and supporting recycling initiatives in communities across the country to help bring beverage containers full circle.

As part of the beverage industry's Recycle Together initiative with The Climate Group, just last month ABA President and CEO Susan Neely joined Knoxville Mayor Daniel Brown and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to recognize the City of Knoxville's effort in launching a new household curbside recycling program. With "Do Your Part with the Cart," Knoxville is making recycling simple by providing large recycling carts to 20,000 residences throughout the city. The City's program addresses all recyclables through weekly curbside pick-up at no additional charge to City garbage customers.

The beverage industry also supported "Go Green Use Blue," a similar initiative launched in Hartford, Conn., in 2008, in conjunction with Mayor Eddie A. Perez and the National Recycling Coalition. In 2009, we announced that this initiative doubled the tons of recycled waste and led to the implementation of a citywide, single-stream recycling program.

"Through our work with The Climate Group, our industry is proud to have supported comprehensive recycling programs that address all recyclables in these model cities," Neely said.

Some examples of ABA member companies' efforts to support and promote recycling in their businesses and among consumers include:

• The Coca-Cola Company has placed more than 150,000 recycling bins in event and public spaces since 2008, and also is providing access through new Reimagine Beverage Containers recycling centers. These centers, which allow consumers to bring large amounts of cans and PET bottles to a convenient location, have already recycled 2.4 million containers, resulting in more than 100,000 pounds of material diverted from landfills. In addition, the company is encouraging recycling at home through the support of programs such as Recyclebank and Recycle and Win, and providing Recycling Education Vehicles at events and venues in about 250 U.S. cities a year.
• Following its first full year of collecting comprehensive waste data, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group can now report on the recycling yields at all of its manufacturing locations. The company currently recycles 75 percent of its manufacturing solid waste, putting it close to the 80 percent goal established two years ago, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, is raising its solid waste recycling goal to 90 percent by 2015.
• Starting at its headquarters in Bethesda, Md., Honest Tea currently sponsors Bethesda Green, a local initiative promoting a healthy economy and sustainable living practices. Together, the group has procured more than 30 recycling bins, organized E-cycling days, launched a biodiesel fuel research project with Montgomery County and created local green jobs, among other achievements, which has resulted in the program being replicated in several other cities. At the recent Southern Ground Music Festival with Zac Brown Band, larger-than-life Honest Tea bottle recycling bins collected more than 7.5 tons of cardboard, and two tons of aluminum cans, plastic bottles and plastic cups.
• Nestle Waters North America is the sponsor of the inaugural Recycle-Bowl, the first comprehensive nationwide recycling competition for elementary, middle and high school students. Launched in August in partnership with Keep America Beautiful, Inc., the four-week Recycle-Bowl competition, which ended on November 12, provided students with a fun, interactive way to learn about environmental responsibility through in-school recycling. During the competition, participating schools tracked and reported how much recyclable material they collected for a chance to win prizes. The school in each state that collected the most recyclable material per capita will receive a prize, and a national champion will be selected from among the statewide winners.
• In 2010, PepsiCo announced a multiyear partnership with Waste Management and Keep America Beautiful to place Dream Machine recycling kiosks and bins at popular public locations across North America, in support of the company's goal of helping increase beverage container recycling rates to 50 percent by 2018. Since that time, almost 500 Dream Machine kiosks and 2,000 bins have been placed; recycling programs have been run in more than 550 schools in 32 states; and approximately nine million containers and more than 450,000 pounds of plastic bottles and aluminum cans have been recycled. More recently, PepsiCo announced that the nation's capitol is partnering with the company's Dream Machine recycling initiative, the first city to do so.
• In its latest Sustainability Report released earlier this year, Sunny Delight Beverages Co. noted that all of its manufacturing sites reached their zero waste to landfill goal—three years ahead of schedule—diverting more than 26 million pounds of waste from landfills. Eliminating waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, composting and using co-generation, the company has turned its waste stream into a source of revenue by selling what can be recycled and saving the expense of sending waste to landfills.

For more information on the beverage industry's environmental stewardship, or to learn more about how to "Think Inside the Bin," visit www.ameribev.org.  

The American Beverage Association is the trade association representing the broad spectrum of companies that manufacture and distribute non-alcoholic beverages in the United States. For more information on ABA, please visit the association's Web site at www.ameribev.org or call the ABA communications team at (202) 463-6770.

SOURCE American Beverage Association