Stamford, Connecticut
Background
Stamford, Connecticut, a city of approximately 130,000 residents, has had a single stream recycling program for nearly 10 years. Since the switch from a dual stream to a single stream system back in 2008, the city has been accepting a wide range of recyclables that include many foodservice packaging items.
City staff currently collects residents’ 64 or 96-gallon carts and brings materials to city-owned local transfer station. The city also collects source separated residential recyclables at a drop-off recycling center. Stamford works hard to increase their recycling rate which currently sits at 32 percent as of 2015 (52 percent including yard waste), which is well above the Connecticut’s average recycling rate of about 24 percent.
Since the City’s switch to single stream recycling in 2008, the City’s Supervisor of Recycling and Sanitation reports the city has increased the quantity of collected materials from approximately 6,000 tons to over 12,000 tons in 2016. The supervisor also estimates that approximately 2-5 percent of the total recyclables collected as part of the current recycling stream are foodservice packaging items.
Challenges
NONE! Despite accepting a particularly wide range of items, the City of Stamford has seen no issues since first accepting foodservice packaging materials in 2008. The city has regular conversations with their facility and the staff has had no problems with contamination or large quantities of unwanted materials.
Stamford Recycling newsletter
Lessons Learned & Recommendations
To cities considering accepting foodservice packaging in their recycling program, the city’s supervisor emphasizes making sure recycling is accessible to all residents’ homes and public areas such as Stamford’s installation of recycling collection toters on public streets and all parks. In addition, it is important to reach out to all residents, properly inform the community, spread awareness and provide updates about the recycling program. The Recycling and Sanitation Department in Stamford used outreach materials such as leaflets in mail, bus stop advertisements, email blasts, educational tours of their recycling facility, as well as even a short video clip that played at the local movie theater. Below is the movie theater advertisement the department created themselves.
- February 2017
Foodservice Packaging Materials Accepted
Accepted in the Recycling Bin
Aluminum foil
Aluminum plates and containers
PET, PP and PS plates
PET, PP and PS cups
PET, PP and PS bowls
PET, PP and PS cutlery
PET, PP and PS take out-containers
Foam PS cups
Foam PS egg cartons
Foam PS take-out containers
Paper Cups
Paper bags
Paper plates
Paper-take out containers
Pizza boxes
Molded fiber egg cartons and beverage carriers
*Stamford Recycles accepts a wide range of items, however, all recyclable items must be clean when placed in the bin. The City defines clean as rinsing out bottles and cans, rinsing off plates and containers and only including pizza boxes that are free of food or large amounts of grease.
More Case Studies
The Mid-America Regional Council Solid Waste Management District (MARC SWMD), the regional solid waste planning agency serving local governments across the Kansas City metropolitan region, and FPI collaborated to add paper and plastic cups as accepted materials for recycling and reinforce recycling other already accepted takeout packaging.
First Star Recycling and FPI collaborated to add paper cups as accepted materials for recycling and reinforce recycling other already accepted takeout packaging.
C&S Waste Solutions and FPI collaborated to add hot and cold beverage cups as accepted materials for recycling and reinforce simple recycling best practices.
Grand Traverse County, MI, residents can reduce waste by recycling their clean, empty paper cups and pizza boxes in curbside recycling carts and at local drop-off centers.
Over 500,000 households in the Hampton Roads region of Virgina, can now recycle hot and cold paper cups as part of their recycling program.
Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation is asking residents to recycle their clean and empty paper cups and other takeout containers.
FPI awarded Groot a communications grant to inform residents about newly added recyclable materials, emphasizing the inclusion of paper cups, and reiterating the importance of ensuring all recyclables are clean and empty before placing in recycling carts.
Following the installation of the robotic sorter, the City of Madison, Pellitteri, and FPI collaborated on a focused educational campaign aimed at informing residents and customers about the recent modifications to the recycling program.
ACC's longstanding partner mills readily accepted bales containing paper cups. FPI facilitated discussions between RMPF and the mills, and ACC broadened its list of acceptable items to include paper cups and paper take-out containers.
Leveraging FPI's track record of successful community partnerships as evidence of paper cup recyclability, and securing approval from St. Lucie's collaborating mills, the County began including paper cups in its mixed paper bales.
The County’s strong commitment to sustainability made it an ideal candidate to expand its recycling program to incorporate a range of foodservice items, like cups and containers, through an FPI Community Partnership.
Clark County began incorporating paper cups, along with a variety of other paper foodservice items, into its mixed paper bales. The MRF subsequently sold this high-quality fiber to local paper mills in the region, where it could be reprocessed into new products.
Following the FPI’s market-based approach, the parties communicated regarding the proposed change in Sioux Falls' recycling program to ensure alignment between Millennium Recycling and its partner mill, WestRock in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sustana committed to providing an off-take agreement for a combined paper cup/carton bale produced at the Alpine MRF in Denver. Following this change, the city of Denver carried out a targeted educational campaign to notify residents.
More households in Chicago and the surrounding area can now recycle paper cups along with other take-out containers.
More than 182,000 households in the Memphis area are now able to recycle paper cups alongside already accepted foodservice packaging.
FCC Environmental Services has installed new robotic sorting technology at its MRF enabling greater Dallas area residents to recycle paper cups, and improved recycling of food and beverage cartons.
Eight municipalities in the Tulsa metropolitan area with over 252,000 households can recycle hot and cold paper cups.
FPI is working closely with local material recovery facilities (MRFs) and paper mills in North and South Carolina to add paper cups as an acceptable commodity for residential curbside recycling.
