Nestle Waters teams with Keep America Beautiful to improve recycling

With the unofficial start of summer just around the corner, consumers increasingly reach for packaged beverages to keep them hydrated while on-the-go. In communities across the country, however, recycling solutions for these packaged items are often inadequate and inconvenient, and according to the National Association for PET Container Resources, less than 24% of plastic beverage bottles were recycled in 2007.

To encourage and empower local communities to make away-from-home recycling more convenient, Nestle Waters North America today announced it has teamed up with Keep America Beautiful to provide $10,000 "Recycle On The Go" grants to 12 Keep America Beautiful affiliates.

Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization focused on litter prevention, waste reduction and beautification. Through public-private partnerships, KAB aims to engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community's environment.

More than 55 affiliates applied for the grants, which required the organizations to propose creative, comprehensive and sustainable concepts for public venue recycling of plastic beverage bottles. Each project will tackle public space recycling in an innovative way, from focusing on education, to infrastructure, to grassroots volunteer efforts.

"These 'Recycle On The Go' grants are a step toward improving our country's recycling rates and our environment," said Kim Jeffery, president and CEO of Nestle Waters North America, which has committed to working with others to more than double current plastic beverage bottle recycling rates to 60% by 2018. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans recycled 82 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2006, reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of removing more than 39 million cars from the road.

"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," Jeffery added.

"Perhaps the greatest benefit of 'Recycle On The Go' grants, and any away-from-home recycling, is that it provides a strong and highly-visible reminder of the importance of recycling," said Matthew McKenna, president and CEO of KAB. "Communities that support robust public space recycling are reinforcing their overall recycling awareness efforts and increasing their recycling rates from all sources."

 Winning affiliates and concepts include:

  --  Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful (Rhode Island): Currently, there is
      no recycling at the area's two major sporting complexes for football,
      soccer, track and other community programs. With the "Recycle On The
      Go" grant, this local affiliate will purchase 20 recycling bins,
      create bilingual signage, and work with area community groups to
      educate about recycling. In addition, the affiliate will collaborate
      with the Central Falls Public Works Department to measure collected
      items, helping the organization to track progress against its goal of
      a 35% recycling rate.

  --  Keep Council Bluffs Beautiful (Iowa): The "Recycle On The Go" grant
      will allow the Council Bluffs affiliate to introduce recycling to the
      Council Bluffs Recreation Complex, an 8,000 seat arena and convention
      center used for sports games, concerts, trade shows, banquets and
      other events, and visited by more than 300,000 people each year. For
      the first time, recycling containers will be placed next to every
      trash bin in the facility.

  --  Keep Santa Fe Beautiful (New Mexico): This affiliate will use the
      "Recycle On The Go" grant to purchase recycling bins for all ten
      public parks in Santa Fe, which are used for sporting events,
      festivals and recreation. The grant will also supplement the agency's
      ongoing community recycling education efforts, which include speaking
      engagements at area schools and community posters and e-flyers.

Information on these affiliates and the other nine grant recipients is available at http://kab.org/recycleonthego.

Source: Nestle Waters North America Inc.