City of Philadelphia Joins National Initiative to Expand Recyclability of Plastic and Paper To-Go Cups

Philadelphia - The City of Philadelphia announced its commitment to make recycling possible for plastic cups made of polypropylene and paper to-go cups. The city's involvement will help both materials reach qualifications for the Widely Recyclable designation for polypropylene plastic cups and the Check Locally designation for paper cups from How2Recycle®, North America's most recognizable on-pack disposal label.

The City of Philadelphia's efforts to accept both plastic and paper cups helps progress toward the goal for more than 60 percent of U.S. residents to be able to recycle polypropylene plastic beverage cups curbside and for at least 20 percent of communities to be able to accept paper cups in curbside recycling collection.

In addition, the city expects to recover approximately 1.5M pounds per year of recyclables previously destined for the landfill, these recyclables will now receive a second life through the existing curbside collection program that sends recyclables to the WM Philadelphia recycling facility.

With the city's leadership, it's expected that even more municipalities across the U.S. will add plastic and paper to-go cups to what can be accepted through curbside or drop-off programs.

"The City of Philadelphia aims to improve quality of life in all neighborhoods," said Scott McGrath, Environmental Planning Director for the City of Philadelphia Department of Sanitation. "We're proud to lead the way to help reach these recycling designations not only for Philadelphia but to make recycling possible of these materials in so many more communities."

As plastic and paper to-go cups are showing up in greater volumes at recycling facilities, WM, North America's leading environmental solutions provider and largest recycler, recently added plastic cups made of polypropylene and paper to-go cups to its universal list of accepted recyclable materials so more materials can be recycled and potentially used again in a new product or package.

WM's change to its list of accepted materials helped expedite the path so more to-go cups can be recycled curbside in more local recycling programs across the U.S.

"We applaud Philadelphia for leading the effort to add plastic and paper cups to the city's acceptable materials list," said Tara Hemmer, chief sustainability officer, WM. "Philadelphia's leadership sets the tone for other municipalities, boosts resident confidence and improves recycling capture rates citywide for impact that will go well beyond the city."

Learn more about the City of Philadelphia's recycling priorities by visiting the Recycling Program website.