Waste Management Now Accepts To-Go Cups in Curbside Recycling 

Waste Management has added plastic cups made of polypropylene and paper to-go cups to its universal list of accepted recyclable materials. This means residents can recycle to-go cups in their curbside carts.

See the complete Recycle Right guide.

What is Accepted in Recycling:

• Hot and cold beverage paper cups (e.g., coffee cups with sleeves and soda cups)
• Plastic cups made from polypropylene (PP) (e.g. cold drink cups for soda and iced coffee)

Not accepted:

• Foam cups (Styrofoam )
• Rigid polystyrene (#6)
• Lids, straws, and stoppers

How to prepare cups for recycling:

• Empty all liquids
• Remove straws, stoppers, and food

• Brands are switching materials: Many companies are moving away from foam and adopting recyclable paper or plastic cups.

• Waste Management upgraded its facilities, executing on plans to invest over $1.4 billion from 2022-2026 in new and upgraded recycling facilities with advanced sorting technology that is expected to process material, including
cups, more effectively and increase the capacity available to serve customers.

How do recycling centers know paper cups belong with paper not bottles and cans? Do machines really sort that out?

Many modern recycling facilities use advanced optical sorting technology to improve how materials are identified and directed. Most WM facilities use a strategically placed optical sorter just before the container line to detect fiber-based 
items, including paper cups, and redirect them into the paper stream.

While paper cups are technically 3D objects, their behavior during sorting depends on their physical condition:

• Crushed or flattened cups mimic 2D items and are sorted with other fiber materials.

• Uncrushed cups may initially follow the container line path, but optical sorters can still identify and recover them as fiber.

Ultimately, the system is designed to recover paper cups regardless of whether they follow a 2D or 3D sorting path. This ensures that cups are correctly sorted into paper bales and sent to mills for recycling.