Honest Tea, the nation’s top-selling organic bottled tea company, announced Seattle, WA and Rochester, NY as the next two locations for The Great Recycle. Featuring a 30-foot tall blue recycling bin, The Great Recycle is Honest Tea’s national recycling initiative which kicked off in New York City’s Times Square this past April with the aim to help increase recycling rates nationwide. “Recycling rates have been hovering around 30% for too long,” says Honest Tea co-founder and TeaEO Seth Goldman. “We launched The Great Recycle to help boost recycling rates around the country, and we’re excited to expand our efforts to Seattle and Rochester. Our goal is to recycle as many bottles as we sell by 2020.”
In Seattle, where a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the World’s Fair is on-going, the giant recycling bin will be located on the grounds of the Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle south of the International Fountain, from 11am-6pm on August 3 & 4. On August 5, it will be located on the south side of the sports stadium near Occidental Avenue, from 4pm-6:30pm before the start of the soccer match.
From there, the big bin travels to Rochester, NY to be part of Greentopia, a week-long art, music, activism, and food festival; the recycling bin will be set up on September 15 & 16.
At The Great Recycle events, attendees are encouraged to bring empty plastic bottles to recycle, and in exchange will receive items such as: a free cold bottle of Honest Tea for one bottle recycled; t-shirts, reusable bags, or sunglasses for five or more bottles recycled; and a gift certificate for a mountain bike for 200 or more bottles recycled (while supplies last). All beverage containers collected will be sorted, recycled, and pelletized so the plastic can be reused.
For those unable to attend in-person, Honest Tea has created the Facebook Recycler application at www.TheGreatRecycle.com, which provides an opportunity for people to make a weekly recycling pledge and recycle an old Facebook post cementing their commitment to the cause. By taking the online pledge, users will be rewarded with Recyclebank points which can be redeemed for discounts and deals from more than 3,000 local and national businesses. To date, over 40,000 people have pledged to recycle 380,000 beverage containers a week.
