Bill Gamble, executive director, Missouri Beverage Association
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
For more than 50 years, Earth Day has provided an opportunity for us to come together and celebrate our beautiful planet. This Earth Day, and the entire month of April, the beverage industry is reinforcing its commitment to protecting our environment through sustainable solutions that reduce our plastic footprint and help create a more circular economy for recyclables like our bottles and cans.
Sustainability solutions begin at the local level. America's leading beverage companies are working with communities across Missouri on ways to protect our planet and preserve resources.
One of these initiatives is the significant investments being made by the beverage industry to improve and increase the collection of our 100 percent recyclable plastic bottles. The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr. Pepper and PepsiCo, in collaboration with environmental leaders World Wildlife Fund, Closed Loop Partners and The Recycling Partnership are funding modernizations of recycling infrastructure in local communities. Our Every Bottle Back initiative is shepherding nearly a half-billion dollars to increase the amount of plastic that is collected and remade into new bottles. We're also funding promotional and educational efforts to help people recycle better.
The Missouri Beverage Association is committed to getting our bottles back, so they don't wind up where they don't belong like waterways, parks and landfills, and are instead remade as they were intended to be.
Earth Day is a reminder to us all that we need to protect and preserve our natural surroundings year-round. The people of your local beverage companies who work and live in Jefferson City and other towns throughout our state share the goal of clean, healthy and beautiful communities, and our businesses will do their part to keep it that way.