Are You Ready to Join Our Sustainability Crew and Get the Bottles Back?
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” ~ Marshall McLuhan
Sustainability. What really is sustainability? At its core, the word refers to “meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” And this goes beyond just environment. In fact, sustainability actually focuses on three significant pillars: society, economy, and environment. Why? Because it is all about balance. The balance that ensures we create programs and initiatives that can have real and lasting impact while still providing the services and products we rely on.
One example of an initiative that is doing just that is “Every Bottle Back.” This initiative is a partnership of America’s leading beverage companies to not only produce 100% recyclable bottles, but to take it the needed step further to ensure those bottles end up exactly where they need to, in recycling bins, and not in our oceans or landfills.
This program starts with the bottle, which is being designed to be 100% recyclable, including the cap. From there, recycling infrastructure investment campaigns and adding messages to the packaging will inform and raise awareness that the bottles are recyclable and will aim to encourage consumers to recycle.
“Every Bottle Back” is working with the World Wildlife Fund to help measure the impact these efforts will have in reducing the industry’s plastic footprint. The Beverage Industry is also collaborating with The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners to help improve access, provide education, and help modernize the infrastructure in key regions of the country. CLICK HERE to learn more about the partnership.
Here are some examples of how and where this program is currently being initiated. Stay tuned for more information as more cities are added including activity coming soon in Florida:
- Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex: Investing $3M to produce $3M+ pounds of recycled PET annually
- Kenosha, Wisconsin: Investing $520K to upgrade an outdated recycling system
- Broken Arrow, Oklahoma: Launching a new curbside recycling program to produce 5.8 million pounds of recycled PET over the 10 years
- Ann Arbor, Michigan: Investing $800K that will result in the collection of 7 million pounds of PET over 10 years
- Central Ohio: Increasing access to curbside recycling, yielding over half a million pounds of PET over 10 years
The ultimate goal of the program is to “get the bottles back” so that they can be made into new ones.
But the program will not work without the consumer. As the quote above states, we are all crew on this planet earth and therefore it will take all of us to truly impact change.
We want to encourage you to take some time to learn more about this program. Understand the impact recycling can have and how to do it correctly. Work within your community to share the message, so that others will know and share as well.
In order for this and all sustainability initiatives to be successful, it will take all of us working together from the company to the local government to the consumer.
Join us and stay informed. If you are a company interested in how you can work with us, please connect and learn more (Flabev.org). If you are a consumer and want to know more about this and our commitment to sustainability, please visit our site and follow us on social media (Environmental Sustainability).
Together we can ensure that our needs do not compromise the needs of future generations.
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