American Beverage funds recycling system improvements

American Beverage has awarded Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, a $185,600 grant to provide new recycling containers for nearly 12,000 households.

The new large-capacity recycling carts will shift Shrewsbury to single-stream recycling. The grant also will fund a program to show residents how to keep their recyclables free of contamination. 

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“American Beverage is excited to support Massachusetts’ efforts to make recycling more accessible and convenient for residents across the state,” American Beverage President and CEO Kevin Keane says. “Investments like these ensure our bottles and cans are collected and remade into new ones, creating a circular economy for recyclables that conserves resources and protects our environment.”  

Through this grant, Shrewsbury will collect an estimated 11.8 million pounds of new recyclables over the next decade. This includes materials for beverage packaging such as 460,000 pounds of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 153,000 pounds of recycled aluminum. Shrewsbury marks the fourth American Beverage-funded project in Massachusetts, alongside Falmouth, Methuen and Danvers. 

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“We are proud to partner with the town of Shrewsbury to increase the amount of valuable recyclables that are remade into new products rather than wasted in landfills,” says Steve Boksanski, executive director of the Massachusetts Beverage Association. “Importantly, this investment makes recycling easier for residents while providing education to advance the town’s sustainability efforts.” 

This grant is one of 64 initial projects for the Every Bottle Back initiative, which The Coca-Cola Co., Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo launched in 2019 with sustainability partners, Closed Loop Partners, The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund. To date, the beverage industry has committed $38 million in Every Bottle Back funding nationwide. The investments are estimated to yield nearly one billion new pounds of recycled PET and more than 87 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade.