Driving Solutions for the Environment

This initiative is marshalling the equivalent of nearly a half-billion dollars to reduce the industry’s plastic footprint.

Our groundbreaking Every Bottle Back initiative had a successful inaugural year, with the industry committed to reducing its use of new plastic. Led by The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo and environmental and sustainability leaders—World Wildlife Fund, The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners—we’re working to advance a more circular system for our 100% recyclable plastic bottles. By doing so, we are ensuring they don’t end up in places they don’t belong, such as oceans, rivers, beaches or landfills.

Promoting the Value of Our Plastic Bottles

Our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We’re focusing our education and awareness efforts to make sure consumers know this important fact—that we’re carefully designing our plastic bottles and caps to be 100% recyclable. Our bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, a light, strong and in-demand material that is easy to recycle and make into new plastic bottles.

Beginning in 2021, voluntary, uniform messaging on our plastic bottles will drive home the message of recyclability.

Investing in Local Recycling Projects

Under Every Bottle Back, we are investing in regional modernization projects to enhance recycling infrastructure. In 2020, we committed more than $10 million in 11 local communities, with work already underway in Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The 11 projects are projected to help collect 644 million more pounds of PET over ten years that can be recycled and remade into new bottles and other items.

TEXAS

DALLAS-FORT WORTH METROPLEX

investing $3M in recycling access, education and a collection facility upgrade

OKLAHOMA

BROKEN ARROW

launching a new curbside recycling program to produce 5.8M pounds of recycled PET over 10 years

WISCONSIN

KENOSHA

investing $520k to upgrade an outdated recycling system to produce 2.1M additional pounds of recycled PET

MICHIGAN

ANN ARBOR

providing $800k to help rebuild and reopen a local Materials Recovery Facility (MRF)

OHIO

CENTRAL OHIO

providing 7,300 new recycling carts for households in Pleasant Township and the city of Whitehall

Tackling Environmental Challenges

The pandemic hasn’t stopped our commitment to protecting our planet. We supported passage of the bipartisan Plastic Waste Reduction and Recycling Act to strengthen recycling infrastructure and education. In addition, we joined the U.S. Plastics Pact, a collaboration of industry partners across the plastics value chain, to accelerate the ABA continued its annual Adopt-A-Beach sponsorship, a project of the California Coastal Commission. Trash barrels carrying “Keep the Cap On” and “Every Bottle Back” messages were seen by thousands of beachgoers.transition to a circular economy. Our companies are continuing to further minimize our impact on the environment by conserving water, reducing our carbon footprint, innovating packaging, improving recycling technologies and taking steps to address climate change.

Improving Recycling Methods

Advocating for fair, efficient and effective policies that increase the recovery of our plastic bottles and the production of recycled PET is a priority, and we’re engaging with state legislatures across the country that are addressing this topic. After all, our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We worked with members of the California Legislature on Assembly Bill 793, the first-in-the-nation requirement for minimum recycled content in plastic bottles that are part of the deposit recycling system, which ultimately was signed into law.

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