Cutting Beverage Container Waste, A to Z:

Goal-setting by the beverage industry

We call on the U.S. beverage and packaging industries to join us in adopting Zero Beverage Container Waste goals.

In 1998,the Aluminum Association, a Washington trade group, adopted a goal of recycling 75% of all aluminum cans sold in the U.S. Unfortunately, the industry has fallen far short of that goal (the aluminum can recycling rate was 45% in 2004), and little has been heard about it since.

Under pressure from the recycling community and socially responsible investor groups, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo adopted 10% recycled content goals in 2001 and 2002. This means that they pledged that the plastic bottles they buy would contain at least 10% reclaimed PET bottles, instead of virgin plastic resin. Neither company has agreed to adopt recycling goals. Other trade organizations and beverage companies have not publicly adopted specific recycling goals.

We call on all beverage companies, and their major trade associations (see links below), to adopt aggressive recycling and waste reduction goals, to set dates by which these goals should be achieved, and to put forth programmatic plans for doing so. We recognize that these industries have traditionally opposed bottle bills (or “forced deposit” programs), so we call on them to institute their own voluntary programs—of any sort—that will be as effective at container recycling as deposit systems have been for 35 years.

Container waste reduction goals and target dates should also be adopted by the National Recycling Coalition, which has led the major beverage brand owners in a recent dialogue on falling container recycling rates , and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Solid Waste, whose Resource Conservation Challenge has targeted beverage containers for increased recovery, but has not yet set goals or dates.

Some links:

Major brand owners :

• Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser)
• Cadbury-Schweppes (Dr. Pepper, 7-Up, Motts, Snapple)
• Coca-Cola & Coca-Cola Enterprises (+Dasani, Sprite, Dannon, Evian, Minute Maid, Fanta, HiC)
• Coors Brewing Co.
• Miller Brewing Co. (owned by SABMiller)
• Nestlé (especially the bottled water division)
• PepsiCo (+Aquafina, Mountain Dew, Tropicana, Sierra Mist, Mug, Lipton, Sobe)

Trade associations :

• Aluminum Association
• American Beverage Association (formerly the National Soft Drink Association)
• American Plastics Council
• Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR)
• Glass Packaging Institute
• International Bottled Water Association
• NAPCOR (National Association for PET Container Resources)
• National Beer Wholesalers Association

Cutting Beverage Container Waste, A to Z:

Food Venue Recycling

At least a third of all packaged beverage consumption takes place outside the home, yet public space recycling opportunities are scarce in most states. We must promote recycling opportunities wherever food and beverages are sold: in airports, malls, offices, restaurants & hotels, schools, parks, stadiums, concerts, and other public places. The question, as always, is who should pay for these programs. There is a growing movement toward producer responsibility, where those companies that sell the product take responsibility for the product or package at the end of its life.

Some links:

• Grassroots Recycling Recycling Network's: Producer Responsibility webpage
• INFORM’s Producer Responsibility webpage
• Product Policy Institute
• Environment Canada’s Extended Producer Responsibility website
• UK Environment Agency’s site on Producer Responsibility for Packaging Waste
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s website on Producer Responsibility
• How to Recycle at your Event: a guide by Re Sources for Sustainable Communities [pdf,1.2Mb]
• Recycling at Events: a guide by Recycling Advocates [pdf,3.9Mb]

Cutting Beverage Container Waste,
A to Z:

Education

Spread the word about container recycling and reuse. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, when the nation was in the grip of a “landfill crisis,” a great deal of state, local, corporate, and non-profit money was spent to implement and publicize new recycling programs, and to raise the public’s consciousness about recycling in general. This outpouring has slowed to a trickle, however, in light of agency budget shortfalls and dwindling public and media interest.

It is important for everyone who cares about reducing beverage container waste to urge entities who can conduct formal recycling education to do so. States, cities, garbage companies, and many others need to put more money into social marketing so that the recycling message does not die. Recycling should also continue to be worked into school curricula wherever possible.

Informal education —or “viral marketing”—is also important. Talk to your friends and neighbors about recycling; talk to your co-workers and building management about office recycling; talk to the School Board about recycling in your child’s school district.

Selected Educational Links:

• U.S. EPA:“Waste and Recycling Curriculum Resources”
• OR DEQ: “Rethinking Recycling: An Oregon Waste Reduction Curriculum”
• California Integrated Solid Waste Management Board: Recycling Curricula
• "Recycle Rex:" The educational spokesdinosaur for California DOC
• New York State DEC’s “Green Schools” resources
• Lesson plans from Texas A&M
• "Mrs. Inahurry and the Amazing Trash Converter": a play about recycling for elementary-school students

Selected Social Marketing Links:

• Community-based social marketing resources (McKenzie-Mohr; requires registration)
• Hawaii Workshop: Fostering Sustainable Behavior
• Massachusetts consultant specializing in Recycling Social Marketing
• California and Ohio agree to share recycling social marketing tools