Paper cups are now fully recyclable in Madison thanks to new sorting technology.
Whether customers see the paper cup as half empty or half full, they can rest assured knowing that it’s recyclable in Madison.
Thanks to the recent addition of new sorting technology at its material recovery facility, Pellitteri Waste Systems is now able to accept paper cups as a recyclable material, along with food and beverage cartons and other paper products. The program expansion is supported, in part, by a grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute and the Carton Council of North America.
This new commitment is an opportunity that will benefit the community. “The city of Madison is thrilled to bring paper cup recycling to our community with the help of FPI, the Carton Council and Pellitteri Waste Systems,” said the city’s recycling coordinator, Bryan Johnson. “We encourage residents to clean and empty paper beverage cups like coffee and soda cups and place them in their recycling.”
Previously, paper cups had not been accepted for recycling in the greater Madison area. The decision to add paper cups to the list of acceptable materials aligns the Southern Wisconsin region with other forward-thinking major metropolitan communities, like Detroit and Atlanta, that began welcoming paper cups for recycling last fall.
“Pellitteri and the city of Madison are making great strides in their recycling efforts to add paper cups to their program,” said Natha Dempsey, president of FPI. “We are proud to partner with Pellitteri Waste Systems and our FPI members [in encouraging] residents to recycle rather than dispose of these items.”
All residential and commercial Pellitteri customers have to do is to throw their used paper cups into a curbside recycling bin or single-stream recycling dumpster along with their other recyclable materials. Cups should be clean or empty. Remove cup sleeve and put in the recycling separately. Lids are not recyclable and should be thrown in the regular trash.
Waste haulers and recycling collectors who utilize Pellitteri Waste Systems’ Material Recovery Facility, such as the University of Wisconsin Madison and Faherty Inc., will also begin adding paper cups to their accepted single-stream recyclable collections.
The paper cups and cartons collected are sent to the fully-automated Kipp Street Station, Pellitteri Waste Systems’ state-of-the-art material recovery facility, for sorting. The recycled paper materials are then forwarded to paper mills in the Great Lakes region where they are repurposed to make new recycled-content products such as paper board, tissue and containerboard. In 2020, Pellitteri sorted more than 97 million pounds of mixed recycling materials in total.
To increase awareness about the change, Pellitteri Waste Systems will add paper cup recycling information to its ongoing recycling education campaign, which features 20 recycling tip videos, social media content and other advertisements. The campaign provides numerous resources for residents and businesses, and reminds the community that all recyclables should be cleaned and emptied before placing into recycling carts or dumpsters.
Pellitteri Waste Systems provides recycling services to residential, commercial and industrial customers in the greater Madison area, including the cities of Brodhead, Fitchburg, Middleton, Monroe, Sun Prairie, Verona and Wisconsin Dells, in addition to 16 townships, 12 villages and 30 homeowners’ associations throughout Southern Wisconsin.
For more information, visit pellitteri.com.
To see a list of acceptable materials for recycling, go to cityofmadison.com.
Watch to learn more about recycling paper cups
