Paper cup recycling expands across Carolinas

Efforts to increase curbside paper cup recycling have been ramping up the past few years, and an initiative recently launched in the Carolinas to increase recovery of what has become a valuable commodity.

The Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), Falls Church, Virginia, has partnered with local material recovery facilities (MRFs) and paper mills in North Carolina and South Carolina to add paper cups to curbside recycling programs, building on a commitment to paper cup recycling that has seen more recovered fiber consumers and facilities come aboard as the viability of the material is more broadly accepted.

The multistate initiative officially was launched at the Carolina Recycling Association conference March 27-30 in Wilmington, North Carolina.

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“This recycling initiative in North Carolina and South Carolina represents a significant milestone in advancement of sustainability and recycling efforts,” FPI President Natha Dempsey says. “Our team has worked closely with stakeholders in both states and we are thrilled to witness the realization of this initiative.

“This is the initial phase of our roll-out plan and we plan to extend our collaboration with counties and cities across the Carolinas.”

FPI is partnering with local communities in educational campaigns to inform residents about the acceptance of clean and empty paper cups for curbside recycling. The first partnership will be with New Hanover County, North Carolina, which sends recyclables to the Sonoco Recycling MRF in New Hanover. According to the county, the Sonoco MRF processes more than 25,000 tons of recyclables per year and is the only recycling facility in southeastern North Carolina.

The recovered material will be supplied to the Sonoco paper mill in Hartsville, South Carolina.

At the end of 2021, a group of paper mills and end markets signed a declaration of acceptance stating they will commit to increasing paper cup recycling and denouncing previous notions that the polymer coating found on the cups makes them unsuitable for recycling.

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Sonoco initially was not on that list but in July 2022 announced it would accept paper cups in bales of mixed paper to be used as furnish for its Hartsville paperboard mill and is among 12 companies on the FPI’s most recent list of facilities that accept paper cups.

The current list, according to FPI, includes 12 companies and comprises more than 75 percent of U.S. and Canadian mixed paper demand and one-third of U.S. and Canadian mills consuming mixed paper.

Companies represented are Cascades of Kingsey Falls, Quebec; Continuus Materials of The Woodlands, Texas; Essity of Stockholm, Sweden; Georgia-Pacific of Atlanta; Graphic Packaging International of Atlanta; Great Lakes Tissue of Cheboygan, Michigan; Green Bay Packaging of Green Bay, Wisconsin; ND Paper of Oakbrook, Illinois; Pratt Industries of Conyers, Georgia; Sustana Fiber of De Pere, Wisconsin; WestRock of Atlanta; and Sonoco.

“Leading this recycling initiative in the Carolinas is a source of great excitement for us and we envision this partnership as a blueprint for future collaborations throughout the Carolinas and beyond,” New Hanover County Solid Waste Director Joe Suleyman says. “This partnership is an important step in the right direction towards keeping these materials in the regional economy.”