Poland Spring and The Recycling Partnership Help Consumers Answer "Can I Recycle This?"

STAMFORD, Conn., Aug. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Less than 30% of plastic bottles are currently recycled in the U.S.^[1] And less than half of recyclables in U.S. homes get recycled by consumers^[2]. Poland Spring® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water is teaming up with The Recycling Partnership to tackle one of the core reasons for low recycling rates: consumer confusion.

Starting this month, Poland Spring and The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming recycling for good in communities across the country, are launching their first Instagram recycling hotline to help to answer the common question, "Can I recycle this?" Consumers can post a photo of the item in question on their Instagram feed or in their stories tagging #NotTrash and @PolandSpringWtr to ask for help. Poland Spring and The Recycling Partnership will get back to them with an answer.

"Consumers are at the heart of everything we do and that means we are constantly listening to them to understand their needs and preferences," said Yumiko Clevenger-Lee, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Nestlé Waters North America. "What we're hearing is that consumers are concerned and confused about plastic bottles. So, we're working on innovations like our recently launched and nationally available Poland Spring ORIGIN in a 100% recycled plastic bottle. And we're taking it a step further by working with organizations like The Recycling Partnership to help remove some of the confusion about recycling."

Poland Spring is donating $150,000 to The Recycling Partnership to help improve curbside access to recycling and inspire more Americans to recycle more, better. From August 12 to August 23, in partnership with Z100's nationally-syndicated "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show," every time listeners post a photo on Instagram stories or their feed of them recycling an emptied bottle with the cap on or post a question relating to what can be recycled, and tag #NotTrash and @PolandSpringWtr, Nestlé Waters North America will donate an additional dollar per post to The Recycling Partnership up to $25,000. The promotion will air across the radio show's network of 75 affiliate stations nationwide.       

"We are thrilled Poland Spring is joining The Recycling Partnership, and we're excited about our collaboration on the #NotTrash campaign," said Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership. "Consumers play a critical role in reducing waste and improving markets for recyclable materials by recycling properly. Debunking common recycling myths empowers residents to do their part to recycle better, which improves their local recycling programs, helps create a healthier U.S. recycling system, and is good for the planet."

Using recycled plastic helps keep plastic out of landfills, oceans, and waterways, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to using virgin plastic^[3]. Poland Spring and parent company Nestlé Waters North America are committed to leading the industry in the use of recycled plastic. Poland Spring's current packaging, which is made from PET plastic, is already 100% recyclable. In June, the brand made the industry-leading commitment to convert all its individual-sized still water bottles to 100% recycled plastic by 2022. The conversion has started already, with their 1 Liter and 1.5 Liter still water sizes being made with 100% recycled plastic. The brand is also expanding How2Recycle labels across all of its packaging, to remind consumers to empty the bottle, replace the cap, and recycle when they're done. This is another way Poland Spring has been helping to alleviate confusion, and help make recycling easier.

In addition to packaging innovations, Nestlé Waters North America also supports recycling infrastructure through investments with organizations like the Closed Loop Fund to help increase recycling capabilities throughout the U.S.

"We're on a mission to eliminate the 'single' from 'single-use' plastics," said David Tulauskas, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Nestlé Waters North America. "When valuable plastic like PET is not recycled, it can't be broken down and reused to make new products, which is a waste of money and resources. On the other hand, as more consumers recycle their PET bottles, they increase the number of bottles that can be made with bottles and reduce the need for virgin plastic. Working with partners like The Recycling Partnership helps to make recycling as convenient as possible for consumers."

To learn more about Poland Spring's sustainability efforts, visit PolandSpring.com/madebetter.

About Poland Spring® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water
Established in 1845, Poland Spring® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water has been served throughout the Northeast for more than 170 years. Filtered by 10,000-year-old glacial aquifers of Maine, Poland Spring® offers a crisp, refreshing taste. Poland Spring® has no additives, only the naturally occurring electrolytes that provide a crisp, refreshing taste. To learn more, visit: https://www.polandspring.com/.

About Nestlé Waters North America 
Nestlé Waters North America offers an unrivaled portfolio of bottled water brands for healthy hydration, including Poland Spring^® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water, Nestlé^® Pure Life^® , Perrier and S. Pellegrino^®. The company also owns and operates ReadyRefresh^SM by Nestlé^® , a customizable water and beverage delivery service. Just Click and Quench^SM. 

Based in Stamford, Connecticut, with approximately 8,000 associates located in North America, we manage natural resources for long-term sustainability, and we conserve nearly 21,000 acres of natural watershed area. We currently source water for our six regional spring water brands from 47 springs across North America. We are also committed to creating shared value and being a good neighbor in the 140 communities where we operate in the U.S. For more information, visit us at www.nestle-watersna.com/en and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: @NestleWatersNA. Nestlé Waters North America is an affiliate of Nestlé Waters, the world's largest bottled water company. Nestlé Waters serves customers in 130 countries, with 52 well-known bottled water brands and is, in turn, a subsidiary of the world's largest food company, Nestlé, S.A, based in Vevey, Switzerland.

About The Recycling Partnership
The Recycling Partnership (recyclingpartnership.org) is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities, and communities all across America. As the only organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters; The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. The Recycling Partnership has served more than 1,000 communities with best-in-class tools, data, resources and technical support, helped communities purchase 445,000 recycling carts, reached 50 million households, and helped companies and communities invest more than $43 million in recycling infrastructure. In doing so, The Recycling Partnership has created meaningful social, environmental, and economic change. By the end of 2019, the nonprofit change agent estimates it will have diverted 230 million pounds of new recyclables, saved 465 million gallons of water, avoided 250 thousand metric tons of GHG, and driven significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. 

[1] The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) 2017

[2] State of Curbside Report (2016)

[3] Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) 2018

SOURCE Nestlé Waters North America

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