Posted on Feb 17, 2025 | News,Press Releases
Keep Louisiana Beautiful, Coca-Cola, and Osprey Initiative Partner to Recycle Plastic Bottles and Aluminum Cans in 27 Parishes During Love the Boot Week
BATON ROUGE, La. – During Love the Boot Week, April 5-13, 2025, Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB) has partnered with Coca-Cola in spearheading the recycling of plastic bottles and aluminum cans for litter cleanup events happening in 27 parishes. This effort, facilitated by the Osprey Initiative, will lead to thousands of bottles and cans being diverted from the landfill. Love the Boot Week is Louisiana’s largest litter removal and beautification effort held during Earth Month, with events organized by businesses, non-profits, schools, governments, and families in all 64 parishes. Events in eligible parishes can sign up for recycling when registering for Love the Boot Week at LoveTheBoot.org.
“Thank you to Coca-Cola for continuing to fund recycling during Love the Boot Week,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “It takes all of us working together to keep our communities clean. If you are having a Love the Boot cleanup in one of the 27 parishes where recycling is available, I encourage you to participate in this important effort to divert cans and bottles from the landfill.”
“At Coca-Cola, our bottles and cans can live many lives, and efforts like this to collect and recycle are fundamental to that process,” said Scott Ryan, Vice President of Franchise Operations for The Coca-Cola Company. “We’re proud to sponsor and participate in Love the Boot Week again this year and commend Keep Louisiana Beautiful for their leadership in litter reduction in the state.”
With support from Coca-Cola, Osprey Initiative will facilitate recycling from litter cleanup events in the following parishes: Acadia, Ascension, Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, DeSoto, East Baton Rouge, Evangeline, Grant, Iberia, Jefferson, Lafayette, Livingston, Orleans, Ouachita, Plaquemines, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Vermilion.
The recycling program will include a combination of pick-up and drop-off services, and 21 regional offices of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will serve as recycling drop-off locations for Love the Boot events.
This is a significant expansion from the 2024 recycling effort, which was successful in collecting 13,891 aluminum cans and plastic bottles at 62 sites in 15 parishes. Last year during Love the Boot Week, 19,441 individuals volunteered a total of 100,712 hours at 760 events in all 64 parishes, leading to the removal of 347 tons of litter. In addition to litter removal, volunteers focused on community beautification, planting 921 trees and 4,408 plants, and refurbishing 366 gardens.
Recycling bags will be shipped from Osprey to those who sign up for recycling. Osprey will pick these bags up, sort the material, and deliver the recyclables to a recycling facility.
“When items are properly recycled, they don’t end up littering our environment or entering our landfills,” said Susan Russell, KLB Executive Director. “Not only does recycling reduce waste, but it also requires less energy to use recovered materials when making products in comparison to virgin materials. We are grateful to Coca-Cola for funding recycling at Love the Boot Week events, so the bottles and cans collected can be repurposed rather than ending up in a landfill.”
Everyone in every parish is invited to register for a cleanup or beautification event and/or sign up to volunteer for Love the Boot Week at LoveTheBoot.org.
