Stop, Collaborate and Listen: Advancing a Circular Economy Through Partnerships

At Keurig Dr Pepper, partnerships are essential to deliver sustainable packaging innovation and this Earth Day, we are proud to highlight a few powerful partnerships that are advancing a circular economy.

Throughout the years, we’ve learned that collective action is critical to finding tangible and scalable solutions to complex environmental and social challenges.

Partnerships have always been key to KDP’s success. We serve as a catalyst in cross-industry collaborations to make meaningful progress towards our corporate responsibility goals, and our longstanding partnerships have amplified our efforts to improve recycling infrastructure, educate consumers on proper recycling behaviors in communities across the U.S. and develop product and packaging innovations, including K-Rounds™ plastic-free pods, a revolutionary new form of single serve coffee.

During the UN Environment Programme’s INC-4 conference this April in Ottawa, Canada, Monique Oxender, our Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, took the stage to discuss the success of our partnerships and the role that policy plays in supporting the infrastructure needed to build a circular economy. Collective action and smart policy can be a powerful combination and KDP is taking action to catalyze both.

In 2020, we became a founding member of The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, a group from across the polypropylene value chain committed to increasing access to curbside recycling, ensuring more recycling facilities can successfully sort it and stimulating end-markets. Since its inception, more than $13 million in grant funding has been awarded to facilities, enabling curbside recycling access to more than 46 million people across the country.

Three years later, we became a founding member of the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), a U.S. non-profit organization established to administer and support the implementation of laws for paper and packaging at the state level. We look forward to supporting the implementation of important legislation passed over the past few years to further enable circular economy and climate transition plans for our industry.

While there is still more work to be done, we are invigorated and committed to continue to drive change and positively impact our people, communities and planet.

To learn more about our Circular Economy efforts, visit www.keurigdrpepper.com/our-impact/