Amazon, International Paper, and Starbucks have joined the Recycling Partnership in an effort to improve access to recycling and increase the quality of recyclables, among other goals. The three companies join 34 others, including Coca-Cola, Target, Pepsi and P&G as members of the Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit that uses corporate investments to transform recycling in the US. In the four years since the nonprofit launched, it has pulled in $29 million that it has invested in infrastructure and community support.
The Recycling Partnership hopes to double the US’s current recycling rate and capture 22 million more tons of recyclables per year. This would help the country avoid 50 million metric tons of greenhouse gas annually and save $250 million in contamination costs every year.
Corporations large and small - including Ingersoll Rand, Vail Resorts and MillerCoors - have told Environmental Leader that partnerships are a major element in their environmental responsibility strategies. Keene Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, says collaboration is “essential for building stronger solutions to environmental and community concerns, including recycling.” Harrison believes that companies that make sustainability part of their corporate goals are the future of American business.
Partnerships are a powerful tool to achieve complex sustainability goals, says Rebecca Zimmer, global director of environment at Starbucks.
The Recycling Partnership works with its partners to affect the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters.
By the end of 2018, The Recycling Partnership expects to have served 750 communities with tools, resources and technical support, provided 500,000 recycling carts, reached 40 million households, and helped companies and cities invest more than $33 million in recycling infrastructure.
