Every Bottle Back: Competing beverage giants link up to curb plastic waste

01 Nov 2019 --- Leading beverage giants – Coca-Cola, Keurig, Dr Pepper and PepsiCo – have teamed up in the launch of the Every Bottle Back initiative, which is investing in the improvement of plastic retrieval to facilitate the production of bottles with recycled content. The initiative targets improving the quality and availability of recycled plastic in key regions of the US and reducing the use of virgin plastics. Measured by a ReSource: Plastic footprint tracker, the efforts made through Every Bottle Back will be met with data-driven solutions to ensure that real progress is being made.

“Our industry recognizes the serious need to reduce new plastic in our environment, and we want to do our part to lead with innovative solutions,” says Katherine Lugar, President and CEO of the American Beverage Association (ABA), which is spearheading the project. “Our bottles are designed to be remade, and that is why this program is so important.”

This program is being executed in conjunction with the country’s prominent environmental nonprofits and a leading investment firm focused on the development of the circular economy. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) will provide strategic scientific advice to help measure the industry’s progress in reducing its plastic footprint and The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners will assist in deploying funds for the initiative.

“We are excited to partner with the leading environmental and recycling organizations to build a circular system for the production, use, recovery and remaking of our bottles. Every Bottle Back will ensure that our plastic bottles are recovered after use and remade into new bottles, so we can reduce the amount of new plastic used to bring our beverages to market. This is an important step for our industry, and it builds on our ongoing commitment to protecting the environment for generations to come,” says Lugar. 

The Every Bottle Back initiative aims to achieve the following:

1. Measure industry progress in reducing the use of new plastic in the United States through a collaboration with ReSource: Plastic, WWF’s corporate activation hub to help companies turn their ambitious plastic waste commitments into meaningful and measurable progress by rethinking the way plastic material is produced, used and recycled. Specifically, ABA will use the ReSource: Plastic accounting methodology to track the collective progress made on executing strategies to reduce the use of new plastic, as well as as a resource in identifying additional interventions. 
2. Improve the quality and availability of recycled plastic in key regions of the country by directing the equivalent of US$400 million to The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners through a new US$100 million industry fund that will be matched three-to-one by other grants and investors. The investments will be used to improve sorting, processing and collection in areas with the biggest infrastructure gaps to help increase the amount of recycled plastic available to be remade into beverage bottles. 
3. Launch a public awareness campaign to help consumers understand the value of 100 percent recyclable bottles through community outreach and partner engagement and reinforce the importance of getting these bottles back, so they can be remade into new bottles.
4. Work together to leverage its packaging to remind consumers that bottles are 100 percent recyclable and can be remade into new bottles. Beverage companies will begin introducing voluntary messaging on packages beginning in late 2020.

Company executives at the Every Bottle Back press conference.“Reaching our goal of No Plastic in Nature by 2030 will only happen if business, governments and the NGO community work together to fix a broken plastic material system,” says Sheila Bonini, Senior Vice President of Private Sector Engagement at WWF. 

“ABA is driving this sense of collaboration within the beverage industry to address one critical piece within this system, which is ylene terephthalate (PET)recycling in the US. Measured by our ReSource: Plastic footprint tracker, the efforts made through Every Bottle Back will be met with data-driven solutions to ensure that real progress is being made,” she adds.

The majority of plastic beverage containers in the US are made from PET, a strong, lightweight and safe plastic approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in food and beverage containers. Due to its quality and versatility, recycled PET for years has been in high demand for use in an array of products as varied as clothing, carpets and playground equipment.

“The beverage industry cannot deliver on its promises of sustainable packaging without serious improvements to the current US recycling system. Working in partnership with the beverage industry on its Every Bottle Back initiative will help to improve local recycling and provide Americans with stronger recycling programs for all materials, including plastic bottles,” says Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership.

“At PepsiCo, we are striving to build a world where plastics need never become waste,” says Kirk Tanner, CEO of PepsiCo Beverages North America. “More recycled plastic lessens the need for new plastic.”

Are we doing enough?Break Free from Plastic warns industry against complacency in “false solutions.”
The collaboration between the historic competitors comes at the heels of a report issued earlier this week by action group Break Free from Plastic, which questions the overall impact of recycling in curbing ubiquitous plastic waste. 

Following 484 cleanups in over 50 countries across six continents, the report names Coca-Cola, Nestlé and PepsiCo as the world’s “top polluting companies.” The Break Free From Plastic report also blasts the FMCG heavyweights for only offering “false solutions to the plastic pollution crisis they have created.” 

Essentially, recycling will not solve the issue, and making a product recyclable doesn’t mean that it will be recycled, nor will it remove the adverse human health impacts of the chemicals in plastics, warns the group – which is comprised of more than 1,800 organizations.

The report marks the second analysis from Break Free from Plastic. Last year, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé also topped the list.

By Benjamin Ferrer