Community Partnership | LRS: Chicago-Area
Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS), waste management provider for the city of Chicago, opened a new material recovery facility (MRF) that, thanks to an equipment grant from FPI and the Carton Council of North America, will accept paper cups and food and beverage cartons.
The equipment grant supported the purchase and installation of an optical sorter on the container line to target cups and cartons. These materials will be sorted into a polycoat bale that will be sold to mills in the Great Lakes region. The high-quality fiber is used to make new paper products that consumers use every day, like paper towels, toilet paper, napkins and even new paper cups.
FPI also provided a communications grant to support resident outreach in Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane and Lake counties. The campaign will feature social media posts, an updated recycling flyer, an educational recycling video and transit advisements tailored to the Chicagoland community.
As a result of these grants, more households in Chicago and the surrounding area can now recycle paper cups along with other take-out containers including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) cups, paper bags, pizza boxes, molded fiber containers, polypropylene (PP) cups/tubs/containers/trays and aluminum foil food packaging.
To learn more about LRS’ recycling initiative, visit www.LRSrecycles.com.
Foodservice Packaging Materials Accepted
Paper cups*
Paper bags
Pizza boxes
Molded fiber food packaging
PET cups
Polypropylene (PP) cups
Polypropylene (PP) tubs/containers/trays
Alumninum Foil Food Packaging
*New items added during partnership
