Paper cups have become a bit more sustainable in Madison.
Coffee and fast food takeout cups can now be placed in city recycling carts, the city’s Streets Division announced Thursday.
The change is a result of new sorting technology installed by the city’s recycling contractor, Pellitteri Waste Systems, as well as efforts by the Foodservice Packaging Institute and Carton Council of North America to find markets for the material.
Matt Todd, a consultant for the Foodservice Packaging Institute, said paper mills have developed technology to separate paper from the thin plastic lining that keeps them from leaking.
Paper cups -- along with milk cartons, oatmeal boxes and other polyethylene-coated paper containers -- can now be used to make new products like tissue and cardboard.
“You guys are ground zero for paper recycling in Wisconsin,” Todd said.
But there was an additional challenge: Paper cups can be flat or intact when they show up at the sorting facility. Flat cups could be recycled with other paper, but the mechanical sorters weren’t equipped to handle the three dimensional cups.
Pellitteri recently invested about $4.5 million in new equipment that uses optical scanners to detect those cups and sort them with similar materials, said company vice president Danielle Pellitteri.
Pellitteri said the Madison facility is one of only five in the country that is set up to handle cups with other cartons.
“It’s very good news,” said Bryan Johnson, Madison’s recycling coordinator.
The change comes as demand for cardboard boxes and other paper products has paper mills paying top dollar for recycled paper, though Todd said successful cup recycling is more a matter of being able to sort materials and get them to mills that can use them.
While coffee stains are expected and OK, Johnson said cups should be empty and dry before going into the bin and any plastic lids or straws removed and thrown in the trash. Cardboard sleeves can be recycled as well but should be removed from the cup first.
Because not all area recycling processors are set up to handle paper cups, the new policy applies only to curbside recycling bins in Madison as well as other communities where Pellitteri handles recycling, including Fitchburg, Middleton, Sun Prairie, Verona and Waunakee.
So don’t just assume you can toss a cup into the recycling bin at your local coffee shop, Johnson said.
