Last updated on August 16th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
In its ongoing quest to provide companies and organizations with a voluntary solution to the urgent need to address recycling rates, the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) has announced another addition to its sponsor list: the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA).
“Just feet from the curb, Americans make decisions every day about whether or not to recycle,” said David Gill, CVP board chair and global account director at Novelis. “This decision is heavily dependent on their attitudes about recycling and their knowledge of the options available. Pooling resources nationally, we can make a bigger impact on those critical decisions locally. That’s why we’re delighted to have IBWA involved to help our efforts.”
“This is a natural fit for IBWA,” said Joe Doss, president of the IBWA. “As part of our commitment to reducing the environmental footprint of the bottled water industry, we are working to get more bottled water containers into the recycling stream. The good news is that bottled water drinkers are among the best beverage container recyclers, with 32.25 percent of plastic bottles recovered through curbside programs in 2010, more than doubling in the last six years. CVP is on the ground right now, creating a real sense of urgency about recycling, focusing on local consumer marketing and emphasizing data-based decision making and measurement. We view this as a truly effective way to improve recycling rates for all consumer packaging, not just bottled water.”
IBWA joins the growing list of companies and nonprofits that support CVP, including Alcoa, American Chemistry Council, Ball Corp., BWAY Corp., Crown Holdings Inc., Coca Cola Recycling, Impress USA, Golden Aluminum, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Keep America Beautiful, Metal Container Corp., Novelis, Rexam, Silgan Containers Corp., Sonoco-Phoenix Inc., Tri-Arrow Aluminum and the Van Can Co.
CVP is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping communities increase participation in and tonnage collected from their residential curbside recycling programs. This is done through grassroots education campaigns that reach and motivate consumers as well as through ongoing data analysis to help accurately measure success. CVP recently unveiled a new tool designed specifically for anyone responsible to educate residents about recycling. Called CVP Connect (www.CVPConnect.org), it is a web-based communications training destination for resources and guidance on developing, executing and measuring strategic and effective education campaigns. The tool is free with the only requirement being that users must report their recycling data, which will provide CVP with tangible data on the success of CVP Connect by each community engaged as well as collectively.
CVP’s community focused efforts are creating real recycling success stories.
Greenville, N.C., partnered with CVP in 2009 to plan and execute a recycling education campaign, allocating $40,000 as a test to see if education could impact recycling tonnage. As a result, Greenville experienced a 10.4 percent increase in recycling within the first year of the campaign, and that success resulted in a continuation of recycling education funding that continues to improve its recycling tonnage (up 10.5 percent in 2011).
Baton Rouge, La., saw a 35 percent jump in recycling collection in 2006 when it switched to single-stream recycling and provided residents with larger carts. But that fell short of the mayor’s goal of increasing recycling tonnage by 50 percent. In 2007, Baton Rouge partnered with CVP to try to get closer to reaching the goal. Together, they developed and implemented a campaign with consistent visuals and messages linking recycling to pride in the city. The campaign was a great success, helping Baton Rouge increase recycling tonnage over the 50 percent goal.
