The Recycling Partnership adds funding partner

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), Alexandria, Virginia, has signed on as the newest funding partner of The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia. The IBWA is the fourth new partner in as many months for The Recycling Partnership, joining Kimberly-Clark, the Consumer Technology Association, and Heineken USA as the latest additions to The Partnership’s expanding group of diverse backers, which currently numbers 22. 

“It’s a pretty simple equation,” says Keefe Harrison, executive director of The Recycling Partnership. “More funding partners equals more resources, which directly equates to the recovery of more high-quality recyclable material.”

She adds, “IBWA unifies the bottled water industry in much the same way that we unify the recycling industry, making them great strategy partners for squeezing every last drop of goodness out of our work.”

In 2015, The Recycling Partnership says it leveraged $11 million in new recycling infrastructure, including the delivery of 165,000 recycling carts, and provided direct value to 1.2 million households. New engagements in 2016 include improving quality across Massachusetts in partnership with Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and rolling out carts in partnership with the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“The bottled water industry is actively working to build partnerships that will help increase recycling efforts, and the reliable, scalable results that The Recycling Partnership delivers are hitting the mark for us,” says Chris Hogan, IBWA vice president of communications. “The recycling rate for single-serve PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottled water containers has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and they are the most frequently recycled PET beverage containers in curbside recycling programs. As an industry, we are always looking for ways to strengthen existing programs and help to expand recycling efforts ever further.”

 The Partnership’s 2016 grant round is currently open, geared specifically to help counties, municipalities, tribes and solid waste authorities with 4,000 or more households upgrade to cart-based collection. The new Request for Proposals for cart and education grants is available at http://recyclingpartnership.org.