Our partner at the national level is the American Beverage Association and they continue to find ways to get the fierce competitors to work collaboratively on matters of sustainability and recycling. In partnership with World Wildlife Fund, The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners they embarked upon a bold initiative to promote awareness and support the development of recycling infrastructure in our cities and towns with the goal of getting Every Bottle Back!
Learn more
The Massachusetts Beverage Association and its members want to continue driving the message the recycling can work, especially with its bottles and cans which are 100% recyclable and represent the most valuable commodities in the waste stream.
Massachusetts is 1 of 10 states that has a bottle deposit law. Learn more about how deposit systems work.
Currently, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is redeeming only 37.5% of the containers under the deposit system but that doesn’t mean the other 62.5% isn’t getting recycled. The vast majority of this pool of containers is being recycled through existing municipal streams, like transfer stations and curbside pickup.
MA Deposit Sales, Redemptions and Unclaimed Deposits
September 2021
Massachusetts Recycling Challenge
In 2012 the MBA and ABA developed a program to demonstrate our commitment to public space recycling and that is called the Massachusetts Recycling Challenge. Our goal is to help communities understand best practices in municipal recycling, to fund public space infrastructure and promote awareness to encourage more recycling.
Highlights
- Four workshops in central and southeastern Massachusetts to provide technical assistance along with practical examples of PAYT systems in place. Representatives of more than 50 cities and towns have participated in one or more of these sessions.
- In addition, MRC’s consultant, DSM Environmental, has provided direct support to more than a dozen communities related to PAYT and other efforts to enhance diversion and increase recycling.
- MRC has provided on-the-ground consulting expertise through DSM Environmental Services to work with communities to assess public space recycling needs and opportunities, select the right equipment and locations, and develop plans for installing and servicing the equipment. MRC provides funding for the consulting support and the purchase price of the bins.
