PURCHASE, NY - PepsiCo and Waste Management Inc. announced a multi-year partnership to make recycling easier and more convenient.
The Dream Machine recycling initiative is designed around PepsiCo??s goal of increasing the U.S. beverage container-recycling rate from 34 percent to 50 percent by 2018. Dream Machine kiosks are computerized receptacles that include a personal reward system that allows consumers to collect and redeem points for each bottle or can they recycle in the kiosk.
The program also intends to provide funding to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), a national program offering free, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with disabilities. The more that people recycle bottles and cans in a Dream Machine, the more support PepsiCo can provide EBV for career training, education and job creation.
Currently, less than a third of plastic beverage containers are being recycled each year in the United States and only 12 percent of public spaces are equipped with recycling receptacles, illustrating a clear need for greater public access to recycling bins.
The Dream Machine recycling initiative will introduce thousands of new recycling kiosks in popular public venues such as gas stations, stadiums and public parks to make it more convenient and rewarding for consumers to recycle on the go. In addition to more than 50 machines being rolled out in Southern California, the drug store chain Rite Aid is set to be one of the first national retailers to sign on to the program, starting with 150 kiosks in their North Carolina locations. PepsiCo has also entered into a partnership with Keep America Beautiful Inc. (KAB) to encourage community involvement in the program by engaging nearly 600 local KAB affiliate organizations in communities nationwide.
The Dream Machines will be provided by GreenOps LLC, a subsidiary of Waste Management, and operated by Greenopolis, an interactive recycling system that brings together online and on-street technologies and rewards people for recycling their beverage containers in kiosks by allowing them to receive awards when they visit greenopolis.com.
Learn more about the Dream Machine on Facebook.