Municipal Recycling

Chicago-based Tropicana, a division of PepsiCo, and Waste Management (WM), Houston, have launched a national initiative to increase the number of juice and milk cartons for recycling.

WM is accepting juice and milk beverage cartons at all of its recycling processing facilities across the country. The initiative begins the long-term goal of increasing beverage carton recycling to every community across the nation, which will be promoted through the Carton Council.

In areas currently accepting cartons, residents can recycle juice, milk, soy, broth and other beverage cartons by placing them in their recycling bins as part of their curbside recycling program.

For consumers who must separate recyclables, cartons can be placed with bottles and cans. Consumers can find out if their municipality accepts cartons by visiting www.recyclecartons.com. Consumers that do not have access to curbside collection of containers are able to go to www.thinkgreenfromhome.com to purchase an in-home recycling container.

Tropicana, Waste Management, Dean Foods (T.G. Lee Dairy, Horizon Organic and Silk) and the Carton Council (Evergreen Packaging, Tetra Pak, Sig Combibloc and Elopak) have launched a pilot in Tampa, Fla., to expand carton recycling and to educate consumers to recycle their cartons. Encouraged by the Florida pilot, the initiative is expanding to include all areas where WM has recycling processing facilities.

Waste Management separates the cartons from the other recyclables and sends them to secondary mills for recycling. Juice and milk cartons, like those used by Tropicana, are recycled through a process called hydropulping, which recovers the paper fibers for recycling.

San Francisco Touts 72 Percent Recycling Rate

According to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the city has reached a recycling rate of 72 percent, nearing its goal of 75 percent. The recycling rate is the highest in the country, according to Newsom.

A key reason for the increase in recycling rates in the city has been the growth in the amount of construction and demolition material that has been collected through the city’s Mandatory Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.

The figures compiled by the city’s Department of the Environment (SF Environment) show that San Francisco generated 2.1 million tons of waste material in 2007. Of this, only 617,833 tons went to landfill, the lowest disposal rate since 1977.

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The increased recovery of construction and demolition debris is a positive trend. However, SF Environment data shows that more than two-thirds of the landfill-bound material was recyclable, with nearly 40 percent being mixed compostables (mostly food scraps and soiled paper), 15 percent recyclable paper and 15 percent other mixed recyclables.