DECATUR, Ala. – American Beverage is investing $437,500 to improve the recycling infrastructure for approximately 20,000 Decatur, Ala., households through the introduction of larger recycling carts, significantly boosting the city's collection efforts. The investment will also support improvements to the city’s materials recycling facility (MRF) and recycling education outreach to city residents.  

"Decatur is the latest example of the beverage industry’s commitment to creating a circular economy in Alabama for our bottles and cans, which we are designing to be 100% recyclable,” said Virginia Banister, president of the Alabama Beverage Association. “By expanding access to curbside recycling and improving the city’s materials processing capabilities, we're ensuring that Decatur residents can easily recycle, keeping our containers out of landfills and remade into new bottles and cans, as intended.” 

New, 96-gallon recycling carts will be provided to 9,000 households that currently do not participate in the curbside recycling program, providing increased capacity to recycle more materials. The 11,000 households that currently participate will be given the opportunity to request a larger recycling cart.

The grant also supports the city’s upgrades to its MRF’s processing capacity including expanding its tip floor and adding a baler. These improvements will allow Decatur to grow its processing capabilities and expand the amount of recyclables it can accept. 

The project, launched in collaboration with leading sustainability nonprofit The Recycling Partnership, is expected to yield more than 30 million new pounds of recyclables over the next decade. This includes 1.4 million pounds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and 487,000 pounds of aluminum, both of which are used to make recyclable bottles and cans.

This grant is in addition to a previous investment in Mobile, which helped support the creation of a new recycling collection facility servicing more than 100,000 residents. 

Since launching five years ago, Every Bottle Back—an initiative of The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo—has reached 14 million Americans through $29 million in funding nationwide. In total, the investments across 50 communities are estimated to yield 707 million new pounds of recycled PET and 43 million more pounds of recycled aluminum over the next decade.

##