Press Release: Communities Gain New Free Tools to Boost Recycling Education
FPI’s Resident Education Kit offers customizable graphics, messaging, and outreach tools to help communities recycle more takeout packaging
Falls Church, Va. >>> September 3, 2025 – The Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) unveiled its revamped Resident Education Kit, a free, all-in-one resource designed to make recycling outreach about cups and take-out containers easier, faster, and more effective for communities nationwide. The kit empowers municipalities, haulers, and recycling advocates to run professional, locally tailored campaigns without the need for extra staff or budget.
Sample customizable graphic from the Resident Education Kit.
FPI has enabled more than 8.4 million U.S. households to recycle common foodservice packaging, including plastic cups and containers, paper cups, paper bags, pizza boxes, and aluminum trays, by working across the recycling supply chain to confirm these items can be effectively sorted, processed, and marketed. The updated Resident Education Kit builds on this mission, offering flexible marketing materials communities of all sizes can customize to their local guidelines, language, and branding.
“Communities generate measurable volumes of cups, containers, boxes and paper bags each year,” said Natha Dempsey, president of FPI. “Ensuring take-out containers are recovered effectively is a priority to FPI members, and a key part of that success depends on residents understanding the full range of foodservice packaging items they can recycle. Our updated Resident Education Kit will help in this effort.”
Key features of the kit include:
Customizable Canva Templates: Bilingual graphics that can be tailored with a free Canva account to match local recycling rules and branding.
Comprehensive Communication Tools: Press release templates, FAQs, messaging best practices, and more to streamline campaigns.
Completely Free: All resources available at no cost.
“This kit removes the two biggest barriers for communities trying to improve recycling outreach — time and resources. Now, any community can launch a polished, professional campaign that actually moves the needle on recycling participation,” said Dempsey.
Over the years, FPI has partnered with more than 28 communities and Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) to develop tailored recycling outreach materials, creating campaign assets from the ground up. This hands-on approach has delivered strong results and remains a valuable option for communities pursuing larger-scale campaigns through FPI’s Community Partnership program. The updated kit builds on that foundation, empowering communities to take the lead with ready-to-use tools they can adapt on their own. This approach speeds the process, expands access, and gives communities the confidence to launch impactful foodservice packaging recycling campaigns.
“We first partnered with FPI in 2017 and still use the resources we developed together through the campaign, but the updated Resident Education Kit makes it easy to create new outreach materials,” said Karen Maynard, solid waste education manager from Louisville, Kentucky. “The kit is well done and thoughtfully put together! The Canva templates look fantastic, and it was easy to add my department logos. These are exactly the kind of tools that make life easier for people with busy schedules like mine.”
The Resident Education Kit is available now at www.recyclefsp.org/resident-education-kit. Municipalities, nonprofits, and recycling coordinators can start using the kit today to launch effective, tailored recycling campaigns. To request a free demo of the kit, contact Maggie Orozco at morozco@recycle.com. Communities seeking larger-scale campaigns can apply for an FPI communications grant, which provides additional resources and advertising placements to maximize reach.
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ABOUT FPI: Founded in 1933, the Foodservice Packaging Institute is the trade association for the foodservice packaging industry in North America. FPI promotes the value and benefits of foodservice packaging and plays an active role in advancing the recovery of FSP to support the circular economy. The association serves as the industry’s leading authority to educate and influence stakeholders. Members include raw material and machinery suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and purchasers of foodservice packaging. For more information, visit www.FPI.org.