Georgia-Pacific boosts paper cup recycling capabilities

Georgia-Pacific has expanded its paper cup recycling capabilities, adding a third mill to its list of those currently accepting polycoated paper cups in mixed paper bales.

The Atlanta-based paper company now accepts polyethylene- (PE-) coated paper cups at its Savannah River mill in Rincon, Georgia, joining recycled paper mills in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Muskogee, Oklahoma, that have been accepting paper cups in mixed paper bales since 2020.

“As single-use paper cups have grown in popularity in recent years so, too, has paper cup waste,” says John Mulcahy, vice president of stewardship for Georgia-Pacific, which manufactures the Dixie brand of paper cups. “As a leading manufacturer of paper foodservice products, we continually look for ways to consume fewer resources as part of our longer-term strategy to identify solutions that benefit society. Accepting mixed paper bales containing PE-coated cups at our mills is a significant step in this direction.”

RELATED: Making the case for polycoated paper recovery

Georgia-Pacific partnered with the Falls Church, Virginia-based Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) and the NextGen Consortium, an industry collaboration managed by New York City-based Closed Loop Partners’ Center for Circular Economy, to promote and expand acceptance of polycoated paper cups for recycling, continuing a partnership started in 2018 to help create more opportunities for polycoated paper recycling.

PE coatings historically have left single-use paper cups out of the recovery and recycling process, according to Georgia-Pacific. However, according to the company, it has proven through “extensive” repulping trials that these mills can effectively recapture fiber from paper cups while screening out PE coatings before reusing that fiber to make bath tissue, napkins and paper towels. 

Kate Daly, managing partner and head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, says Georgia-Pacific’s repulping capability will benefit the foodservice industry and further advance the industry’s environmental stewardship.

“We are excited see Georgia-Pacific continue to accelerate paper cup recycling through its acceptance of cups in mixed paper bales at the Savannah River mill,” Daly says. “There has been tremendous momentum in paper cup recycling over the last several years. This announcement marks another critical step forward for the industry, and we hope even more mills will follow this lead.

“Georgia-Pacific’s actions and commitment to expanding cup recycling across their portfolio reinforces the value of the materials in paper cups and builds critical markets for these recycled materials. As the managing partner of the NextGen Consortium, Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy continues to collaborate with leaders like Georgia-Pacific and stakeholders across the cup value chain, to keep these valuable materials in play.”

Georgia-Pacific also says it is collaborating with the NextGen Consortium to trial at its mills “next-generation paper cups” that have replaced the PE-coating with more biobased materials that are recyclable or compostable.

The company also is working with FPI to expand and accelerate single-use paper cup acceptance in curbside recycling programs to increase the number of households that can recycle paper cups.

“We’re proud to work with Georgia-Pacific in its effort to recover and reuse poly-coated paper cups,” said Natha Dempsey, president of FP President Natha Dempsey says. “We look forward to partnering with new communities that previously didn’t have the capability to recycle them.”