The first city in Texas to add food and beverage cartons to its residential curbside recycling program is on track to recycle nearly 65,000 tons this year.
Some things are easy to recycle, like aluminum cans or glass bottles. But those items only make up a fraction of the waste generated in the average American household.
More often we’re stuck holding things like soymilk containers, milk jugs and juice cartons, wondering if it’s OK to throw them in recycling bin.
That’s why the City of Dallas has launched a new effort to become the first city in Texas to add food and beverage cartons to its residential curbside recycling program.
Under the new initiative, residents are able to place all empty cartons, such as those used for milk, soup and other foods, in their blue recycling bins or community recycling drop-off containers.
Last year, the City of Dallas recycled more than 50,000 tons of materials, and is on track to recycle nearly 65,000 tons this year. Carton recycling will help the city toward its 31% diversion goal for the year. By increasing its recycling rate and coming up with innovative ways to increase waste diversion, the city saved millions of dollars and even generated new revenue.
Studies show that adding more materials to a municipal recycling program results in more households recycling and increases the total amount of materials that they will recycle.
“We want to create and take advantage of all the opportunities available to recycle more items such as cartons, and to continue to increase the number of recyclable materials that can be saved from landfills,” said Sheila Overton, City of Dallas Waste Diversion Manager. “With the support of the Carton Council, we have been able to make this a reality in Dallas.”
The Carton Council and its members, Elopak, Evergreen Packaging, SIG/SIG Combibloc and Tetra Pak, are working with recycling facilities, the communities they serve and paper mills across the U.S. to build a robust recycling system for food and beverage carton packages, i.e., milk and juice cartons found in the refrigerated case or cartons merchandised on nonrefrigerated shelves.
As of September 2011, the Carton Council’s Carton Recycling Access campaign has already reached approximately 40 million households (nearly one in three American households). And it is actively working to increase the number of communities and households across the country that have access to carton recycling.
Visit recyclecartons.com to learn more.
For a carton recycling location near you, head to our recycling location finder.
Haul it away Louisville
October 15th, 2011
That is good news. I hope this program spreads across the US. This should set the example for others to follow. We have to keep on pushin. Thanks for the update.
Jacqueline G. Ponder
October 16th, 2011
We would like you to see the Unnatural Resources Institute website because our program could go across the USA.
I am glad to see that Dallas is doing more recycling. I was raised in Houston.
All big cities need to step up recycling and reusing our natural resources. There are so many to go around. They are not endless and with 12billion people expected in the world by the middle of the century, all of us should be part of this program.