PENSACOLA, Fla. – American Beverage today announced a $263,250 investment, through its collaboration with The Recycling Partnership, to support Pensacola’s return to recycling with new on-truck AI camera technology to help reduce contamination.
The AI-enabled cameras will help the city identify and reduce contamination—an issue that previously led to the city pausing recycling services. The funding will also support a robust community engagement program to educate residents on recycling best practices.
“We are proud to support the City of Pensacola in delivering better recycling services for residents,” said Elizabeth DeWitt, President and CEO of the Florida Beverage Association. “By leveraging new technology, we can help improve the quality of recyclables in Pensacola and get more of our valuable bottles and cans back – so they can be remade as intended.”
This investment, the second in the state following Jacksonville last year, is expected to collect an estimated 26 million pounds of new recyclables over the next decade. This includes more than 1 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and 338,000 pounds of aluminum, materials essential for creating recyclable bottles and cans.
This project represents another step forward for Every Bottle Back—an initiative of The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—that launched in 2019 and has reached more than 14 million Americans through nearly $30 million in funding nationwide. In total, the investments across 54 communities are estimated to yield more than 711 million new pounds of recycled PET and 45 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade.
Contact: liz.dewitt@flabev.org
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About American Beverage’s Every Bottle Back initiative
The Every Bottle Back initiative is an integrated and comprehensive initiative by The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo, alongside sustainability leaders Closed Loop Partners, The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund, designed to improve plastics circularity. These efforts support individual sustainability commitments undertaken by The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo.
Learn more at EveryBottleBack.org.