National Nonprofit The Recycling Partnership Has Awarded Gwinnett County a $100,000 Grant to Deliver 8,400 Recycling Carts and Provide Recycling Education to Nearly 200,000 Households in Unincorporated Gwinnett

GWINNETT Co., Ga. (June 14, 2021) – Households in unincorporated Gwinnett County now have access to recycle more, thanks to a grant from The Recycling Partnership, with financial support proved by American Beverage’s Every Bottle Back initiative.

The Recycling Partnership’s $100,000 grant will deliver an estimated 8,400 new recycling carts to unincorporated households across the County, unlocking more than 2.7 million pounds of new quality recyclables that can then be transformed into new products and packaging.

“We are very pleased and grateful to The Recycling Partnership for the generous grant to enhance our recycling efforts,” said Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Nicole Hendrickson. “In Gwinnett County, we believe in recycling. It reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills, conserves natural resources, prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect raw materials, saves energy, and strengthens our economic security. We’re looking forward to seeing an increase in recyclables in Gwinnett County because ofthis grant.”

Any household in unincorporated Gwinnett County is eligible to request a new recycling cart provided by the County. To receive their free recycling cart, residents of unincorporated Gwinnett County can simply respond to the postage-paid mailer they receive, submit a request online at gcsolidwate.com, or call 770-822-7771. If you already have a recycling cart, the County encourages residents to continue using it to recycle and place it at the curb for collection on their assigned day.

“Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful is honored to work alongside the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners and The Recycling Partnership to take curbside recycling in Gwinnett County to the next level,” said Schelly Marlatt, Executive Director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful. “From education about the importance of proper recycling to access to larger carts to capture more recyclables, we’re exploring a number of ways to optimize The Partnership’s recent $100,000 grant and the County’s matched funds for the benefit of our community and our environment. We are thankful to both The Recycling Partnership and our outstanding Board of Commissioners for their support as we look ahead to even more improvements to come for our countywide recycling program. We hope the strides we make today will serve as a shining example for other communities across the nation to follow in the future.”

In addition to providing new, large, lidded recycling carts, The Recycling Partnership and Gwinnett County have launched a recycling education campaign encouraging residents to Know What to Throw by recycling the right things, the right way, an initiative designed to improve curbside recycling across households in unincorporated Gwinnett County. The campaign is expected to reach the County’s near 200,000 households and will include a mailer that informs residents about what to recycle and how to request a recycling cart, billboards, social media, and other education and outreach initiatives to help households recycle the right things the right way.

“The Recycling Partnership is excited to partner with Gwinnett County to expand access to curbside recycling and help residents understand how to recycle correctly,” said Keysha Burton, Community Program Coordinator for the Recycling Partnership. “Gwinnett’s commitment to improving the capture of quality recyclables demonstrates that positive program transformation builds system resiliency, and we are grateful to the beverage industry’s Every Bottle Back initiative for supporting this recycling transformation.”

Gwinnett County recyclers can do their part to help their community and planet by only placing materials accepted for recycling in their carts, including paper and flattened carboard, empty and dry aluminum and steel cans, and empty and dry plastic bottles, jars, and jugs. In Gwinnett County, recyclables should be loose and not in bags, and plastic bags, items with food residue, batteries and small electronics, and Styrofoam^™ should not be placed in recycling carts. Many of these items cause equipment jams at recycling facilities, creating hazards for recycling facility workers.

In addition to the Gwinnett County grant, The Recycling Partnership with financial support from Every Bottle Back, anticipates awarding the City of Norcross, Georgia $15,000 to improve the quality of the community’s recycling stream.

“Georgia’s beverage companies are excited to partner with Gwinnett County and The Recycling Partnership to make recycling more accessible for county residents,” said Kevin Perry, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Beverage Association. “This investment will improve our state’s recycling efforts and ensure our 100% recyclable beverage bottles are collected and remade as new bottles, meaning less plastic in the environment.”

For more information on what can and cannot be recycled in Gwinnett County or to request a free recycling cart, visit: www.gcsolidwate.com.

About The Recycling Partnership

The Recycling Partnership is the action agent transforming the U.S. residential recycling system for good. Our team operates at every level of the recycling value chain and works on the ground with thousands of communities to transform underperforming recycling programs and tackle circular economy challenges. As the leading organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain, from working with companies to make their packaging more circular and help them meet climate and sustainability goals, to working with government to develop policy solutions to address the systemic needs of the U.S. recycling system, The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. Since 2014, the nonprofit change agent diverted 375 million pounds of new recyclables from landfills, saved 968 million gallons of water, avoided more than 420,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, and drove significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. Learn more at recyclingpartnership.org