Detroit residents can recycle paper cups, food and beverage containers

More than 2.75 million Michigan households can now recycle food and beverage cartons and paper cups as a result of a partnership between Denton, Texas-based Carton Council of North America and Falls Church, Virginia-based Foodservice Packaging Institute.  

According to a joint news release, the two groups collaborated with local recycling facilities in Michigan to recycle paper products in the metro Detroit area as well as 70 other cities in the region. The recycled paper cups and food and beverage cartons will be used to make new paper products, such as paper towels, toilet paper, napkins and paper. These products will primarily be made in the Great Lakes region.

Detroit residents can recycle paper cups and cartons in their curbside recycling carts. According to the Carton Council of North America and the Foodservice Packaging Institute, Detroit as well as some other area communities will participate in a joint outreach campaign this month to notify residents about the ability to recycle paper cups and cartons in curbside recycling.

“Paper cups and cartons are items our residents use a lot, and they have a desire to recycle. We are excited to provide the opportunity now for them to be recycled,” says Mike Csapo, general manager of the Resource Recovery Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC).

RRRASOC and Green For Life Environmental Recycling and Resource Recovery’s (GFL Environmental’s) facility in Southfield, Michigan, will sort paper cups and food and beverage cartons from area communities, including the city of Detroit. According to the Carton Council of North America and the Foodservice Packaging Institute, these facilities join other recycling facilities in Michigan that already accept these materials, including Southeast Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority, Emterra and Kent County.

Once the recyclables are received at these recycling facilities, they are sorted and then sent to paper mills in the Great Lakes region to be made into new recycled-content products.

To help this process, GFL Environmental says it has installed technology at its New Boston, Michigan, facility to sort paper cups and food and beverage cartons. The technology was paid for through a grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Carton Council of North America as part of ongoing initiatives to increase recycling paper cups and food and beverage cartons in the country.

“Michigan is a valuable location for adding paper cups to its recycling stream due to its proximity to end markets in and around the state,” says Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. “The state is committed to growing recycling and end markets to meet its goals.”