Plastic Cups

Alternative ways to recycle
Put in Container Recycling

Though they may not actually get recycled, plastic cups are allowed under the blue lid of a split recycling cart or in a larger cart or bin labled “Containers Only.”

Cups are made from many types of plastic and are difficult to sort and recycle.  Please avoid single-use disposable cups.

Alternative Ways to Recycle

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Solo® Cup Recycling Program

You can send in any rigid, plastic #6 cup to the Solo® Cup Free Recycling Program by TerraCycle.

Ways to Reduce

Choose Reusable Cups

Red Cup Living makes a reusable cup that looks like the classic red Solo® cup. Consider purchasing these cups instead of disposable ones in order to reduce your plastic waste.

Choose Recyclable Cups

The Ball Aluminum Cup can be reused or recycled with aluminum cans. Not only is it a more eco-friendly choice than plastic, it will keep your drinks colder, too.

Reusable Packaging For Businesses

Check out Upstream’s catalog of reusable packaging and unpackaging innovators that provide ways for consumers to obtain products, mostly food and beverages, in returnable, reusable, or refillable packaging – or they deliver products to consumers unpackaged altogether.

Did You Know?

Plastic #6 Is Difficult to Recycle

The United States throws away enough plastic cups and disposable dinnerware to wrap around the Earth three hundred times if stacked together. Why can’t these plastics cups be recycled? Solo cups are made from polystyrene, or plastic #6, which is not recycled by most cities.

Plastic in Our Bodies

Styrene, a component of polystyrene, has been found in 100 percent of human fat tissue samples dating back to 1986. It is known to cause cancer in animals, and suspected to be both cancerous for humans as well.