Niagara Bottling Joins The Recycling Partnership

Municipal recycling programs have been steadily growing in recent years. What initially began as a bold effort to recycle paper products in the 1990s is now a nation-wide endeavor that supports recycling of most household materials.

That growth is in part due to nonprofits like The Recycling Partnership (The Partnership), a national coalition of companies that provide funding to help get communities on the recycling track. Programs like its cart grants, which covers part of the cost of the infrastructure for the community program, help to make it easier for cities and counties to launch changes to how they process waste.

This month the national bottling company, Niagara Bottling joined that effort by becoming a member of The Partnership. The company is the nation’s largest user of PET plastic and has been making an effort in recent years, to find ways to decrease its impact on the environment. According to the company, those efforts include developing new bottles that reduce the demand for plastic in its products.

According to Niagara Bottling’s Executive Vice President Brian Hess, joining The Partnership is a further step toward ensuring the plastic it creates doesn’t end up contributing to greenhouse gasses.

“Becoming a part of The Recycling Partnership is a clear and powerful way for us to expand our waste reduction efforts and make a positive impact on our communities, and the environment by contributing to the cost and effort necessary to make curbside recycling a reality in every community in the United States,” said Hess.

There is no national mandate for cities and counties to adopt recycling programs, so much of the incentive in recent years has come from state, county, municipal and nonprofit efforts to reduce landfills and address the potential impact of their greenhouse gasses. Companies like Niagara Bottling contribute as members to The Partnership, which in turn helps to fund promotions and materials to get communities behind recycle programs.

To date, there are more than 35 companies funding the Recycling Partnership and more than 600 communities that have received funding from its initiative. According to The Partnership, it hopes to raise the number of communities it has funded to 750 by the end of 2018.

“From Portland, Maine to Chicago, Illinois to Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Recycling Partnership has already impacted a quarter of the U.S. population through its recycling solutions,” said Beth Schmitt, The Partnership’s senior director of corporate partnerships. “The more support we receive from leading companies like Niagara Bottling, the more people we can impact. The more people we impact, the healthier our environment and economy will be in the future.”

Flickr image: Intel Free Press