American Beverage and The Recycling Partnership have chosen the village of Villa Park for US$97,500 in funding from the beverage industry's Every Bottle Back initiative. The investment aims to improve recycling rates and will fund new 65-gallon recycling carts for residents to collect valuable recyclables, including 100% recyclable PET bottles and aluminium cans.
The entire Every Bottle Back commitment for Villa Park is around US$780,000, poised to benefit nearly 22,000 residents and 6,500 households. The investment has been projected to generate 8.6 million pounds of new recyclables, including 335,400 pounds of PET plastic and 111,800 pounds of aluminium over the next decade.
Unlike single-use plastic, aluminium is infinitely recyclable and can retain its original properties after rigorous transformation phases. Primary aluminium production consumes 95% more energy than aluminium scrap recycling. Moreover, aluminium cans are made with the purest form of the non-ferrous metal, which can be directly put inside the remelting pot without any need for separation or sorting.
The interim president and CEO of American Beverage, Kevin Keane, stated: "American Beverage is excited to build upon the progress of Every Bottle Back in Illinois with this new investment in Villa Park. Making investments to improve residential recycling will help us to collect more of our 100% recyclable bottles and cans so they can be remade as intended. This announcement is possible thanks to the commitment of leaders in Villa Park, and we are grateful for their partnership."
The president of the Illinois Beverage Association, Brad Harden, commented: "The local companies of the Illinois Beverage Association believe that our bottles and cans can be kept out of nature by improving the way we recycle. New high-capacity recycling carts will allow Villa Park residents to recycle more materials, including our bottles and cans, so they can be remade into new products as intended."
Village manager, Matthew Harline, quoted: "The Village of Villa Park is looking forward to working with The Recycling Partnership and Lakeshore Recycling Service to improve our curbside recycling program. Our current program lacks any uniformity and results in the trash and recycling getting into the wrong processing stream. The carts should increase participation and improve the amount of material actually being recycled that is intended for recycling."
The community program manager from The Recycling Partnership, Mari Long, reassured: "The Recycling Partnership has been excited to work with Villa Park and is grateful to American Beverage's Every Bottle Back initiative for their support. This project will allow residents to capture more recyclable materials at the curb, keeping it out of the environment and getting it back into the circular economy."
This is the second Every Bottle Back investment in Illinois, with a previous investment made in LaSalle. The Every Bottle Back initiative is an effort by The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper, and PepsiCo, in partnership with sustainability leaders Closed Loop Partners, The Recycling Partnership, and World Wildlife Fund, to improve plastics and aluminium circularity and support individual sustainability commitments.
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