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Live from TPC: Every Bottle Back Seeks to Close the Loop on PET

Katherine Lugar, President & CEO of the American Beverage Assn., shares how beverage industry initiative involves educational campaign regarding PET bottles' 100% recyclability, on-pack messaging, and investment in recycling infrastructure.

Katherine Lugar
Katherine Lugar, President & CEO of the American Beverage Association

PET packaging for beverages was made for reuse—or, more precisely, to be recycled into new packaging. The problem is, many consumers don’t realize it. That’s according to Katherine Lugar, President & CEO of the American Beverage Assn. (ABA), who spoke at the 13th edition of The Packaging Conference in Austin, TX, this week. In her keynote, Luger shared with attendees the impetus behind the new Every Bottle Back initiative, a coalition of American’s leading beverage brands and NGOs to increase recycling rates through consumer education and investment in recycling infrastructure. Packaging World reported on the launch of the program in November 2019.

ABA is the trade association that represents America’s non-alcoholic beverage industry, including bottlers and concentrate makers. And although it represents some of the country’s largest beverage companies, Lugar explained it has always been a community-centric organization. “Hundreds and hundreds of our bottling partners lie in every community across this country,” she said. “We sort of say we’re one of those unique industries where our products are made, and bottled, and shipped, and distributed all in America’s hometown.”

Because of this focus on community, she elaborated, more than a decade ago, the industry began to understand that when it comes to societal issues, it had a role to play. “That it’s fundamentally important that where we can, we work across industry to offer bold, new, proactive solutions,” she said. In the past, this has included taking sugar-sweetened beverages out of schools and providing on-pack calorie information before it was required, among other initiatives.


See related articles on sustainability from Packaging World:

“Plasma gasification closes the loop (on sustainability)”

“Plasma gasification can enable circular economy sustainability for packaging”

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