NextCycle Michigan Partnership Paves Way for Paper Cup & Carton Recycling

More than 2.75 million Michigan households, that’s more than 70 cities in the region, can now recycle their food and beverage cartons and paper cups thanks to a NextCycle Michigan partnership with the Carton Council of North America (CCNA), the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

Two major recycling facilities in the region — Resource Recovery Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County (RRRASOC) and Green For Life (GFL) Environmental Recycling and Resource Recovery — will sort paper cups and food and beverage cartons from area communities, including the City of Detroit. These facilities join other recycling facilities in the state that already accept these materials, including Southeast Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority (SOCRRA), Emterra (East Lansing, Lansing), Emmet County, and Kent County.

“This is a perfect example of how NextCycle funding and resource partnerships benefit Michigan communities and the state as a whole,” said Matt Flechter, recycling market development specialist at EGLE. “Recycling is changing dramatically and it’s happening in Michigan first.”

GFL Environmental Recycling has installed technology at its New Boston, Mich., facility to sort paper cups and food and beverage cartons. The addition of this technology was made possible due to a grant from the Foodservice Packaging Institute and Carton Council, through the NextCycle Michigan initiative, as part of ongoing efforts to increase recycling of paper cups and food and beverage cartons in communities across the country.

EGLE has committed grant investments in facilities through the NextCycle Michigan initiative. Partner investments, like that from FPI and Carton Council, into Michigan’s recycling systems have positive economic, environmental, and supply chain benefits for the entire state.

“We are happy to have such strong partners with FPI, CCNA, and EGLE to help us implement these new additions,” said Brent Hildebrand, vice president of recycling at GFL. “Technology in our facility helps to make it possible to sort recyclables and offer additional opportunities for residents to recycle materials with value that deserve to have the opportunity to go on to make new products.”

Once recyclables are received at the recycling facilities, they are sorted and then sent to paper mills, most of which are located in the Great Lakes Region, where they are made into new recycled-content products, such as paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, and office and writing paper.

Read more on the City of Detroit website.