A partnership with the Foodservice Packaging Institute, the city of Denver and recycled fiber mill company Sustana made paper cup acceptance possible in Denver, in spite of recent market shifts.

With a population of nearly 700,000, Washington, D.C. is a compact and diverse city. From the top down, the District is committed to achieving zero waste by 2032. In October 2017, Washington, D.C. rolled out its unprecedented Zero Waste DC campaign, a complete face lift for recovery communications in the nation’s capital. A major component of the campaign was expanding the types of foodservice packaging accepted at the curbside through the Community Partnership program. Among the list of newly accepted materials are pizza boxes, takeout containers, plastic deli and bakery trays, paper cups and more.

The City of Palo Alto in California is home to approximately 67,000 residents and provides single stream recycling collection to the whole community (e.g., single-family residents, multi-family complexes, and commercial businesses, schools). The City switched to single-stream recycling from a multiple sort program in 2005. The same year, the City extended their sustainability commitments and adopted a city-wide goal of Zero Waste by 2021. To help achieve this goal, Palo Alto started a curbside compost collection program in 2009 for commercial businesses and in the same year expanded the recycling collection program to accept plastics and plastic foodservice packaging. In 2015, the residential curbside compost collection was expanded to include food scraps, compostable plastics, and soiled paper. The program has been seeing increasing quantities in both streams. The City’s diversion rate has risen from 63% in 2007 to 82% in 2016.

With a population of over 600,000, Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky. Leading by example, Louisville has a goal of diverting 90 percent of solid waste from the landfill by 2042. Launching the first FPI Community Partnership was the first step to stay on track to increase its diversion.

The city’s recycling processor was key in the decision to accept foodservice packaging and worked with the city to expand the list of materials accepted. In 2015, QRS Recycling collected nearly 23 million pounds of recyclables for the city; with the expanded list of what is accepted and a strategic education campaign in the city’s program, Louisville eyes that 90 percent diversion goal.

Chattanooga, Tennessee, a city of approximately 178,000, has had a single stream recycling program for nearly 13 years. With a focus on providing every household with a curbside recycling container by 2022, the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW) looked at ways of expanding its recycling program with a focus on communicating and educating their residents. The DPW saw the Community Partnership program as a great opportunity to not only expand its recycling program but to have a large communication campaign to refresh its educational materials and give residents updated information on recycling. In fall 2017, after a year of planning alongside FPI, Chattanooga was announced as the very first city selected for FPI’s Community Partnership program.

Sustana Fiber is working to advance the inclusion of takeaway hot and cold cups in the circular economy.

DC's latest report analyzes the great strides made in increasing participation and reducing contamination in the recycling stream.

WestRock is accepting wasted foodservice packaging at eight paper mills with plans to expand this effort.

Announced during the 2019 Plastics Recycling Conference, and developed by The Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the leading international trade organization representing the plastics recycling industry, The APR Recycling Demand Champions Campaign plays a prominent role in driving investment and increasing supply of PCR.

Millennium Recycling, Inc., a material recycling facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has added paper cups to its recycling list through a partnership with the Foodservice Packaging Institute.

Millennium Recycling of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, partners with the Foodservice Packaging Institute.

Merlin Plastics and Peninsula Plastics Recycling are making substantial investments in mixed-plastics processing capacity, bringing positive news for a region hard hit by China’s ban. The operations are installing lines for sorting mixed-plastic bales into discrete materials, some of which they’ll further process. Based in Turlock, Calif., Peninsula Plastics is a subsidiary of Merlin Plastics, which has locations in British Columbia and Alberta.

Millennium Recycling, a single-stream recycling facility based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is expanding the amount of recycled materials it can provide to end-markets: the company has added paper cups to its list of materials it accepts for recycling.

Reclaimer EFS-Plastics have plans to open a third North American operation and is on the hunt for more mixed bales to fuel its growth.

If the collection hurdle can be overcome, paper cup recycling could be a reality in more communities.

Denver residents participating in the city's recycling program can now add paper cups to their curbside carts. The change comes via a partnership between Denver Public Works, Alpine Waste & Recycling, the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) and Sustana.

The City of Denver is expanding its recycling program to include more things. The goal is to increase the rate at which the city recycles.

Denver now has an answer to the question, "what do you do with these paper cups?" The city of Denver can now recycle paper cups.

Starbucks sent 18 truckloads of old paper cups to a paper mill in Wisconsin to prove a point: Contrary to a widespread myth, paper coffee cups can be recycled cost-effectively.

Field trials at two composting facilities evaluated compostable foodservice packaging as a composting feedstock.