Action to Accelerate Recycling commitment focuses on increasing U.S. recycling rates

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Action to Accelerate Recycling commitment focuses on increasing U.S. recycling rates

Greentech Lead America: In one of the major corporate
sustainability initiatives this month, Alcoa, Alcoa Foundation and Keep America
Beautiful (KAB) announced a national commitment to increase U.S. recycling
rates.

The announcement was made at the recently Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting.

The initiative, “Action to Accelerate Recycling” will
generate awareness, create incentives, and provide recycling access and
infrastructure to increase U.S. recycling of aluminum, plastic, glass and
paper.

The commitment, which includes $2 million in funding from
Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation, is expected to engage millions of Americans and
increase the current U.S. recycling rate by 10 percentage points. Increasing
the rate to 75 percent would generate close to 300 additional tons of recycled
content, resulting in the avoidance of more than 2,850 tons of greenhouse gas
emissions.

The U.S. recycling rate lags the rest of the world,
creating huge loss for the country not only on environmental front but also on
employment front. A recent report from the Blue-Green Alliance found that
increasing recycling rates in the United States to 75 percent for all municipal
solid waste would create 1.5 million jobs.

For every can that is recycled, we save energy and money,
reduce our environmental impact, and create economic opportunities in U.S.
communities,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, chairman and CEO of Alcoa. “Our partnership
with Keep America Beautiful is a ‘call to action’ for companies, consumers and
community organizations to make recycling a priority.”

“Together with our industry partners, we set and can
achieve an ambitious yet achievable 75 percent aluminum can recycling rate by
2015 in the U.S,” Kleinfeld said.

“We are singularly focused on influencing people’s
recycling behaviors at work, at home and at play through education, programs
and awareness campaigns,” said Matt McKenna, president and chief executive
officer of KAB. “One of our commitment’s key initiatives is the launch of a
first-ever, multi-million-dollar national media campaign on recycling scheduled
for early next year.”

editor@greentechlead.com

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