In 2010, Pepsi set a goal: The company wanted to help raise the recycling rate for drink containers in the U.S. from around 38% to 50%. The company and PepsiCo Foundation spent $55 million on recycling efforts, from the Dream Machine–a kiosk that with rewards for recycled bottles–to support for the Closed Loop Fund, which helps cities implement curbside recycling. But the most recent numbers for the U.S. beverage container recycling rate show that it has dropped slightly rather than grown.

Pepsi is spending $10 million to seed a new program to help build out recycling infrastructure in the U.S., with a goal of raising a total of $100 million for the effort. But while the infrastructure is needed–right now, about a quarter of American households don’t have access to curbside recycling, and even some of those who do have to opt-in or subscribe to use it–recycling advocates say that the work may not be enough to make more people recycle.

It’s possible that a change in the law might accomplish more. In Germany, 98% of plastic bottles are recycled. In British Columbia, 75% are recycled. In the U.S., plastic bottles are recycled at an even lower rate–28%–than other containers. The reason why most bottles and cans in Germany are recycled is straightforward, advocates say: Like a handful of U.S. states, the governments require bottle deposits. When you buy a six-pack of beer or a can of Spezi in Berlin, you pay a little extra for the containers, and if you bring them back to the store–feeding them into a machine that automatically recognizes what kind of bottle or can you’ve pushed inside–you get the deposit back. It’s “blatantly obvious,” says Susan Collins, president of the nonprofit Container Recycling Institute, that this type of deposit scheme leads to higher recycling rates.

The beverage industry, along with the grocery industry and waste hauling industry, has lobbied hard against “bottle bills” in the past. In Massachusetts in 2014, when advocates wanted to expand an existing bottle bill to include more types of bottles, industry groups spent more than $9 million to defeat the proposal. Similar fights have happened in other states.

Read the full story at https://www.fastcompany.com/90212124/whats-the-best-way-to-get-americans-to-actually-recycle.

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