Keep America Beautiful and the Coca-Cola Foundation make recycling more convenient for colleges and universities nationwide

Kent State University’s College of Podiatric
Medicine installed 42 recycling bins as part
of a national recycling bin grant made
possible by Keep America Beautiful and the
Coca-Cola Foundation.

Kent State University’s College of Podiatric Medicine in Independence, Ohio, has installed 42 recycling bins as part of a national recycling bin grant made possible by Keep America Beautiful and the Coca-Cola Foundation.

At Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine, the 23-gallon Waste Watcher bins have been placed throughout the building alongside trash bins. Placing trash and recycling bins together increases recycling rates and reduces the contamination of recyclables with trash.

Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine is one of 37 colleges and universities across the United States receiving support from the Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program. An additional 52 grants are being awarded to noncollegiate locations that include nonprofit organizations, local government agencies and other community groups. The 2015 grant program will award 5,300 recycling bins overall.

“Thanks to the Coca-Cola Foundation and Keep America Beautiful, the College of Podiatric Medicine will be implementing its first formal recycling program since becoming part of Kent State University in 2012,” says Allan Boike, D.P.M., dean of Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine. “One primary focus of the College of Podiatric Medicine’s academic program is training our podiatric students to think with a big picture perspective. Sustainability and programs focused on preserving and enhancing our environment fit perfectly into this mission.”

“Through this program and our more than 50-year partnership with Keep America Beautiful, we are helping to ensure that communities understand the importance of recycling,” says Lori George Billingsley, vice president of community relations at Coca-Cola North America. “Community recycling not only impacts the environment today, but it helps build sustainable communities for the future.”

“Research has shown that convenience is a key factor in getting people to recycle,” says Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling at Keep America Beautiful. “With Coca-Cola’s continued support, the recycling bins provided through the grant program create literally thousands of new opportunities for people to recycle in public areas across the country.”

Pictured are the recycling bins arriving
at the loading dock at Kent State's
College of Podiatric Medicine.

Recipients were chosen by Keep America Beautiful based on criteria including the extent of their need, recycling experience and their ability to sustain the program in the future. Special outreach was made to colleges and universities through a partnership with the College and University Recycling Coalition, a membership organization serving campus recycling managers.

The Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program awards recycling bins directly to recipients and leverages volume buying discounts. Since 2007, the program has placed more than 45,000 recycling bins in more than 560 communities across the U.S. A full list of the spring 2015 Recycling Bin Grant recipients and further information about the grant program is available at http://bingrant.org.

To learn more about Kent State’s College of Podiatric Medicine, visit www.kent.edu/cpm.

To learn more about Keep America Beautiful, visit kab.org.

For more information about the Coca-Cola Foundation, visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/foundation_coke.html.

For more information about the College and University Recycling Coalition, visit www.curc3r.org.