Ask anyone and they will say they don’t want plastic bottles in their oceans. Nor do they want plastic bottles in landfills. So why is it that only two out of five post-consumer PET bottles, about 29.1%, get recycled each year? That’s a good question. Here are some reasons:
- Lack of access to municipal recycling programs with convenient curbside pickup
- Lack of awareness of the importance of plastic bottle recycling
- Inefficient recycling processes that allow plastic bottles to slip through undetected
- Lack of incentives for individuals to recycle
Evergreen is taking on these challenges with innovative programs and partnerships that include:
Partnering with Cities So More People Recycle on curbside recycling programs that enable people to easily and conveniently recycle PET bottles, cans, glass, paper and corrugated, reducing reliance on landfills.
Collaborating with Every Bottle Back, an exciting initiative of the American Beverage Association, Coke, Pepsi, and Keurig/Dr Pepper to create awareness of PET bottle recycling and use of rPET in new bottles.
Using Robots to Sort Bottles Faster, Better. Many recyclers sort bottles by hand, a slow process. Evergreen uses AI-enabled robots to accelerate the speed and accuracy of our sorting line. Our robots don’t miss a thing!
California’s Bottle Bill Pays to Recycle. Financial incentives like California’s pay people up to 10 cents per bottle or can for recycling. Incentives like this will likely be adopted in other states proving it pays to recycle.