During Love the Boot Week, April 5-13, 2025, Coca-Cola partnered with Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB) to spearhead the recycling of plastic bottles and aluminum cans collected at litter cleanup events in 27 parishes. This effort, facilitated by the Osprey Initiative, led to the successful diversion of 16,503 bottles and cans from the landfill – a 23% increase from last year.
“We are grateful to Coca-Cola for continuing to support recycling during Love the Boot Week,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “When the recycling loop is completed, cans and bottles stay out of the landfill and can be used to create new products. It’s exciting to see this recycling effort take off and we look forward to seeing it grow each year.”
“We at Coca-Cola are proud to have been doing business and employing people in Louisiana for nearly 125 years. With over 2,300 employees from Shreveport to New Orleans, we are deeply committed to preserving our beloved Sportsman’s Paradise,” said Scott McCallister, VP of Coca-Cola UNITED’S West Region. “We are thrilled to see the strong interest and participation in the recycling efforts we support through Keep Louisiana Beautiful’s Love the Boot Week. This initiative helps us to recover packaging to then produce new bottles and cans for the beverages our consumers love.”
During Love the Boot Week 2025, a record 26,935 individuals volunteered a total of 81,852 hours at 1,408 events in all 64 parishes, leading to the removal of 514 tons of litter. In addition to litter removal, volunteers focused on community beautification, planting 1,204 trees and 3,672 plants, and refurbishing 477 gardens.
With support from Coca-Cola, Osprey Initiative facilitated 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 Love the Boot recycling program included a combination of pick-up and drop-off services. Twenty-one regional offices of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development served as recycling drop-off locations for Love the Boot events.
There are many benefits to recycling. According to the EPA, recycling:
- Reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators
- Conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals
- Increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of materials
- Prevents pollution by reducing the need to mine raw materials
- Saves energy
- Supports American manufacturing and conserves valuable resources
- Creates new jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United States
KLB encourages households and businesses to recycle year-round when local recycling services are available. Find recycling offerings by parish on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s website.