To help celebrate America Recycles Day, Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation Tuesday announced the award of 62 grants to communities in 30 states to make recycling bins more readily available and convenient in public spaces.

Four grants were awarded in Pennsylvania, including—

-- South Fayette Township, Allegheny County

-- The Borough of Carnegie, Allegheny County

-- Temple University, Philadelphia

-- Fairview Township, York County

The Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program addresses one of the primary barriers to recycling in public spaces – access and convenience.

In total, the Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program will provide 3,522 recycling bins to colleges and universities, along with 996 bins to local governments and nonprofit organizations.

The recycling bins are made possible through a grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company.

More than  45 percent of the bins are designed specifically for permanent, ongoing use in public spaces such as athletic fields, K-12 schools, fairs and festivals, special events and park settings, with the remaining 55 percent to be used by students in college residence hall settings.

The 2016 program is expected to result in an estimated 1 million pounds of recyclable materials collected during their first year in use.

"The number one thing we can do to get people to recycle is make it convenient," said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling, Keep America Beautiful. "With Coca-Cola's continued support, the grant program addresses that need by creating thousands of new opportunities for people to recycle in public areas across the country."

The Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program addresses lack of convenience by providing a significant number of bins in strategic locations.

Including the 2016 grants, over 49,000 recycling bins will have been placed by the program in 925 communities nationwide since its inception in 2007.

In addition to the grants, Keep America Beautiful provides technical best practice guidance to grant recipients and organizations about setting up effective away-from-home and on-the-go recycling programs.

"At Coca-Cola, we are working with partners across the country to invest in, and support a strong recycling system," said Bruce Karas, vice president of sustainability, Coca-Cola North America. "Through partnerships like the Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Bin Grant Program, we can help reduce overall waste by making it even easier and more convenient for people to recycle both at home and in public spaces."

Grant recipients were chosen by Keep America Beautiful based on their potential to collect the most cans and bottles as well other considerations such as the extent of their need, recycling experience, and their ability to sustain the program in the future.

For more information, visit the Coca-Cola Recycling Bin Grant Program website. Also available is Keep America Beautiful's best practices guide, "Designing Effective Public Space Recycling Programs.”

In 2014, Pennsylvanians recycled nearly 17 million tons of municipal.  For more, visit DEP’s Recycling In Pennsylvania and Composting webpages.

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11/21/2016