Due to a significant amount of interest its this work, AMERIPEN has released an Executive Summary of its 100 Cities Packaging Recovery research entitled, “Unlocked Potential: A Roadmap for Improved Packaging Recovery.”
Recently, AMERIPEN surveyed the 100 largest cities in the U.S. for information relative to adoption rates of best practices and the effectiveness and efficiency of recovering used packaging materials in these cities. This two-year research effort indicates that there are areas of opportunity for standardization and adoption of best practices that could effectively increase the recovery of used packaging in the U.S.
According to AMERIPEN, one of the most important insights from this work is that through the implementation of a combination of proven practices, recycling systems in the U.S. can efficiently recover more material than they do today. “It became very clear to us that there was no silver bullet,” says Jeff Meyers from Coca-Cola, who co-led this work with Elisabeth Comere from Tetra Pak. “Our research showed that a suite of best practices must be deployed, including education, policy, and infrastructure, to achieve high recovery rates.”
AMERIPEN Executive Director Donna Dempsey says, “The insights and conclusions from this research are remarkably similar to those recently published in our white paper entitled, 'AMERIPEN Analysis of Strategies and Financial Platforms to Increase the Recovery of Used Packaging.' While these efforts were both funded and resourced by AMERIPEN, they were led and executed independently by different teams of members and advisors. The findings in both studies clearly support the adoption of sound policies which, when combined with proven practices, will help increase recovery of used packaging."
