Beverage Container Recycling Study Released

Danielle Jackson

Atlanta -- Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment, a baseline study on the costs, benefits and effectiveness of programs to recover discarded beverage containers for recycling, has been released.

The study is the final report of the Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project (MSRP), Stage One. Business and Environmentalists Allied for Recyling (BEAR), a project of Global Green USA, launched the initiative last spring to identify jointly supported recycling policies. Project participants include Houston-based Waste Management Inc., Atlanta-based Coca Cola Co. and the Grass Roots Recycling Network (GRRN), also based in Atlanta.

The assessment contrasts the effectiveness of different programs and concluded that deposit systems recover the highest percentage of discarded containers, followed by municipal curbside programs and residential drop-off programs.

Additionally, project participants agreed that there is a need to continue fact-based collaborative discussions to bring together varying views on recycling approaches, and will invite additional stakeholders to participate in future projects.