Group touts beverage container recyclability

A new brochure from the Washington, D.C.-based American Institute for Packaging and the Environment (AMERIPEN) portrays what the group calls the sustainability benefits of different beverage package types and the materials from which these containers are produced.

The brochure, titled Beverage Packaging: Delivering Taste, Safety, and Sustainability, says Americans each drink about 175 gallons of beverages each year, “much of which is delivered in plastic jugs, aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles, gable top and aseptic cartons and flexible pouches.”

According to AMERIPEN, such packaging “reduces economic and environmental waste by matching the amount of beverage to be served or properly stored with the packaging type needed to effectively and efficiently deliver that product.”

Regarding recycling, the group says, “Beverage containers also provide benefits in line with the EPA’s ‘reduce, reuse, and recycle’ waste reduction hierarchy. Aluminum and steel beverage containers are among the top recycled items in EPA surveys. Paperboard and plastic containers offer significant source reduction value [and] glass packaging is both recyclable and reusable.”

According to Donna Dempsey, executive director of AMERIPEN, “Beverage packaging is a good example of fitting the right material to the right package for the right application. It works hard to deliver on all three legs of the sustainability stool—social, economic and environmental performance.”

The four-page brochure can be found online at AMERIPEN website.

AMERIPEN is a packaging policy advocacy organization whose members include packaging manufacturers and consumer products companies.