Beverage companies donate $664,000 to help expand recycling in Fort Collins 

FORT COLLINS — American Beverage awarded a $664,000 grant to Fort Collins to provide residents with larger recycling carts that allow the city expand recycling of more materials, more often, according to a new release.

The grant will enable the city to provide  more than 35,000 households with new recycling carts, allowing residents to increase the amount of materials recycled through their curbside service. The grant also will fund informational services to support residents in their efforts to recycle better, the release stated. 

“Colorado beverage companies are proud to support Fort Collins and invest in recycling because it’s a proven way to conserve resources and decrease the use of new plastic in our bottles, which are carefully designed to be 100% recyclable,” said Mary Marchun, executive director of the Colorado Beverage Association, in the news release. “This is another example of how government and businesses can effectively work together to remake valuable materials into new products and, ultimately, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

The new carts should help residents dispose of more than 33 million pounds of recyclable material in the  next 10 years, including 1.3 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and more than 400,000 pounds of aluminum, both of which are used to make recyclable cans and bottles, the release stated.

“The Recycling Partnership is honored to partner with yet another Colorado community to deploy our best practices in recycling access and engagement to the city of Fort Collins, ensuring that everyone who wants to recycle can recycle,” said Rob Taylor, vice president of grants & community development in the news release. “We are looking forward to seeing recycling become more accessible as Colorado’s statewide policy for recycling from its extended producer responsibility (EPR) program is implemented.” 

This investment is part of 65 initial projects that the leading members of the beverage industry— The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—and its sustainability partners have committed to fund through Every Bottle Back. To date, the beverage industry committed to $39.1 million in funding nationwide, which could yield nearly 915 million new pounds of recycled PET and more than 87 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade, the release stated.

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