As you open your favorite beverage on Earth Day, check out the cap. You should see a new message to remind you to recycle with the cap on. If not, you will soon.
The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo are rolling out this uniform message to remind consumers that our plastic bottles are carefully designed to be 100% recyclable and can be made into new bottles if recycled. We use versatile plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to make our bottles and caps. PET is designed to be recycled and remade many times over.
That means less need for new plastic, lower costs and a smaller environmental footprint. It’s also in high demand by manufacturers worldwide. This is our industry's latest action to get our bottles back so they can be remade as intended, which means less plastic in our lakes, rivers and parks.
This action is part of our Every Bottle Back initiative where we are doubling down on the beverage industry’s long-standing commitments to sustainability and directing the equivalent of $400 million to The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Fund. Our $100 million industry fund serves as a three-to-one match by grants and investors.
These investments are helping deploy new technology and expand consumer outreach programs designed to ramp up the collection of plastic bottles, improve community recycling systems, and reduce the need for new plastic by beverage makers.
We’re also working to increase recycling rates here in Ohio. Specifically, we’ve partnered with SWACO to expand curbside recycling in Pleasant Township and Whitehall to capture 15.1 million new pounds of materials. We also have invested $2.5 million to help expand a Northwest Ohio plastic reclaimer which will generate 600 million new pounds of food-grade rPET pellets used to make new bottles.
Earth Day reminds us that even the smallest actions can have a great impact. So next time you’re about to finish your favorite beverage, remember — you can help us get every bottle back by recycling it with the cap on.