Paper cup recycling introduced in Chicago

LRS, the city of Chicago’s recycling services provider for four of the city’s six zones, has expanded its list of acceptable materials to include paper cups, making Chicago the latest city to accept paper cups in its curbside recycling program as the trend continues to spread.

According to LRS, the enhanced service will allow more than 1 million Chicago area residents to recycle paper cups.

“As an early pioneer of the circular or closed-loop operating model, we are thrilled to be a part of this initiative to expand curbside recycling in the Midwest,” LRS Director of MRF Operations Mark Molitor says. “The ability to add paper cups to our list of acceptable materials is in line with our goals of diverting and repurposing discarded materials and we look forward to continuing our collaborative recycling efforts in the Chicagoland area.”

Rosemont, Illinois-based LRS has partnered with the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) to launch an outreach campaign to educate Chicago residents of what can and cannot be recycled through the expanded program. The campaign will feature social media posts, updated recycling flyers, an educational video and public transit advisements tailored to the Chicago community.

Chicago joins a growing list of cities to add paper cups to acceptable materials lists in partnership with the FPI. The city of Memphis, Tennessee, added paper cup recycling in June following a rollout of the program in material recovery facilities across North Carolina and South Carolina.

LRS says once paper cups enter the recycling system, it bales them with other paper products and sends the bales to mills in the Great Lakes region.

“FPI has collaborated throughout the recycling value chain to conduct research, facilitate trials and cultivate relationships with end markets to provide pathways for paper cup recycling,” FPI President Natha Dempsey says. “The Midwest represents a huge opportunity for adding paper cups to the residential recycling efforts in the region.”

Acceptable items in LRS service areas now include pizza boxes without grease or reside, food and beverage cartons, paper bags, polyethylene terephthalate and polypropylene cups and aluminum foil food packaging.

“This opportunity to expand recycling to include paper cups helps Chicago minimize landfilling, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and moves us closer to achieving our goal of increasing recycling rates,” says Chris Sauve, deputy commissioner policy and sustainability for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation.