Green Starts Here
In 2009, Nestlé Waters North America teamed up with Keep America Beautiful for the first “Recycle On The Go” grants to encourage and empower local communities to make awayfrom-home recycling more convenient. Nestlé Waters North America is committed to working with others to more than double current plastic beverage bottle recycling rates to 60 percent by 2018. In many communities today, recycling solutions for packaged items like plastic beverage bottles are often inadequate and inconvenient. According to the National Association for PET Container Resources, less than 24 percent of plastic beverage bottles were recycled in 2007. Keep America Beautiful affiliates proposed creative, comprehensive and sustainable concepts for public venue recycling of plastic beverage bottles and the 12 programs selected were awarded more than $113,000. These outstanding programs will tackle public space recycling in innovative ways, from focusing on education to infrastructure to grassroots volunteer efforts. The grants provide a strong and highly-visible reminder of the importance of recycling.
Left to right: Photos courtesy of City of Suffolk, Keep Akron Beautiful.
Recycling Bin Grant Programs Importantly, communities that support robust public space recycling are reinforcing their overall recycling awareness efforts and increasing their recycling rates from all sources. The Coca-Cola Company and Keep America Beautiful announced in 2009 the launch of the Coca-Cola/KAB Recycling Bin Grant Program, an effort designed to promote and support community recycling. The grant program is part of Coca-Cola’s investment in recycling programs and initiatives in the U.S. Recycling programs in 82 towns and cities throughout the country received spring 2010 Recycling Bin Grants from among the more than 1,700 applications submitted. The grant recipients represent a cross-section of community groups, local governments, colleges and nonprofit organizations across the country. Since its inception in the fall of 2007, Coca-Cola’s Bin Grant program has placed over 5,700 recycling bins in 150 communities in 48 states and the District of Columbia.
Nestlé waters Recycle On the Go Grants In 2009, Nestlé Waters North America provided funds for grants totalling $113,000 in 12 communities that proposed innovative and sustainable solutions for recycling in public spaces. While 55 Keep America Beautiful affiliate organizations submitted proposals, only those communities who presented a distinctive need and a unique strategy for implementing a recycling program received grants. Among the affiliates to receive Recycle On The Go grants through the support of Nestlé Waters North America was Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB), which in just four months recycled 252 tons of plastic bottles at festivals and other outdoor events. One of KGMB’s strategies was to expand its recycling efforts into the marinas, an area that had few receptacles, if any.
“ One community at a time, one container at a time, we will work with great organizations like Keep America Beautiful to make recycling easier for people.” Kim Jeffery, CEO, Nestlé Waters North America
Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful also developed educational and marketing material, pamphlets, public service announcements and direct messaging that targeted keeping Milwaukee’s waterways cleaner. And all of this work paid off. Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful’s program serves as a “best practice” example of what KAB affiliates are doing to boost the national recycling rate. In Council Bluffs, Iowa, funding from the Recycle On the Go grant was directed towards the purchase of recycling containers at an 8,000-seat arena and convention center. Keep Santa Fe (N.M.) Beautiful used its funding to help purchase recycling bins for 10 public parks and numerous public events open to residents year round. Other recipients of the Recycle On The Go grants are Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful in Pawtucket, R.I., Keep Allen (Texas) Beautiful Beautiful, Keep Akron (Ohio) Beautiful, Keep Stockwell (Ind.) Beautiful, Keep Charleston (S.C.) Beautiful, Asheville (N.C.) Greenworks, Keep Greenville County (S.C.) Beautiful, Keep Mandeville (La.) Beautiful and Keep Hillsborough County (Fla.) Beautiful.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc. 2009 Annual Review Photo courtesy of Keep Stockwell Beautiful.