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American Beverage awarded a $664,000 grant to Fort Collins to provide residents with new large-capacity recycling carts that allow the city to recycle more materials, more often.
Through the grant, more than 35,000 households will receive new recycling carts, allowing residents to increase the amount of materials recycled through their curbside service. The grant will also fund informational services to support residents in their efforts to recycle better.
“Colorado beverage companies are proud to support Fort Collins and invest in recycling because it’s a proven way to conserve resources and decrease the use of new plastic in our bottles, which are carefully designed to be 100% recyclable,” said Mary Marchun, executive director of the Colorado Beverage Association. “This is another example of how government and businesses can effectively work together to remake valuable materials into new products and, ultimately, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The investment is part of a broader, $3 million effort underway by Fort Collins to move to a city-contracted single-hauler program, making trash and recycling services more consistent for residents.
The recycling carts are expected to yield more than 33 million new pounds of recyclables over the next decade. This includes more than 1.3 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and more than 400,000 pounds of aluminum, both of which are used to make recyclable cans and bottles.
“The Recycling Partnership is honored to partner with yet another Colorado community to deploy our best practices in recycling access and engagement to the City of Fort Collins, ensuring that everyone who wants to recycle can recycle," said Rob Taylor, vice president of grants & community development. “We are looking forward to seeing recycling become more accessible as Colorado’s statewide policy for recycling from its extended producer responsibility (EPR) program is implemented.”
This investment is part of 65 initial projects that the leading members of the beverage industry—The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—and its sustainability partners have committed to fund through Every Bottle Back. To date, the beverage industry committed to provide $39.1 million in funding nationwide. These investments are estimated to yield nearly 915 million new pounds of recycled PET and more than 87 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade.
