Coffee cups are now accepted for recycling in Toronto

If you're in Toronto, you can now toss your disposable coffee cups and fountain drink cups in the blue bin, thanks to a new pilot that launched this week. 

This comes after years of confusion about coffee cup recycling that's required constant messaging from cities — including Toronto — and media outlets about what disposable drink vessels can and can't be recycled.

The pilot is being run by Circular Materials, a non-profit industry-governed group that is taking over responsibility for collection and recycling of materials through the blue box system in Ontario. It's part of a transition to a recycling system funded and run by brands that produce packaging — including fast-food chains and retailers — by 2026.

What cups are accepted and where?

Paper beverage cups lined with plastic, for both hot and cold drinks, are now accepted for recycling at home (including in apartment buildings), long-term care homes, retirement homes and elementary and high schools in the City of Toronto, but not in surrounding parts of the GTA.

The cup recycling program is expected to be expanded to all of Ontario by 2026, and to similar containers such as ice cream cups.

Cups for cold drinks can also be put in the blue bin under the new pilot. (Jenny Kane/The Associated Press)How should cups be prepared for recycling?

To ensure proper recycling, Toronto residents are being asked to:

Empty and rinse the cups. Separate lids and sleeves from them. Keep individual cups loose, not stacked or nested with other cups, for easier sorting at the recycling centre.

Allen Langdon, CEO of Circular Materials, noted that liquid can contaminate a whole container of recycling (which could make all the materials unrecyclable). Meanwhile, stacking or not separating cups from lids means they might not be sorted to the right place they need to go to be recycled.

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Langdon said material from paper cups, which have already been recycled on a smaller scale in some parts of Canada, including B.C. and some communities in Ontario, is often sent to tissue mills and made into toilet or tissue paper. It can also be made into wallboard and other building materials.

Why weren't coffee cups recyclable in Toronto before?

Disposable drink cups have always technically been recyclable, but challenging to recycle because they include a plastic liner that is difficult to separate from the paper (since paper and plastic are recycled differently).

The City of Toronto has previously said its problem was that it could not find a buyer for the enormous amount of beverage cup waste generated by the city. (Some smaller communities have been able to find markets.)

Ashley Wallis, associate director at Environmental Defence, said new material is so cheap it's often not worth it to get recycled material.

Why is recycling beverage cups being piloted now?

Paper drink cups were included in Ontario's new blue box regulations, which require packaging producers such as fast food chains and retailers to take full responsibility for the packaging waste they generate by 2026 — a concept known as extended producer responsibility.

Wallis says it's great that producers are piloting beverage cup recycling now. "It's something they're obligated to do in 2026. They do need to figure it out," she said. 

Langdon said companies have done a lot of work to build markets for the material, and that almost 40 mills across North America now accept it.

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Still, he acknowledged that one reason this is a pilot is that Circular Materials doesn't yet know how much will be collected. It thinks it has a large enough market for Toronto's drink cups, but it will need to figure out what to do with cups from the rest of the province, as well as other containers such as ice cream cups when they're added.

He did note that under the new blue box legislation, producers have to report how much material they collect and how much is actually recycled each year.

Is this going to make a big difference in cutting waste?

Langdon says it's just the first tangible step, but a sign that producers are taking responsibility "and starting to evolve the system in Ontario." He added that he thinks there will be more steps underway as industry gets ready to take full extended producer responsibility in 2026.

Wallis said the pilot "has the potential to be a good thing."

But she said in order to know its true impact, we'll have to see how many of the cups will actually be recycled, and how much of the recycled material will be used instead of new material to make new products.

Emily Alfred, waste campaigner for the Toronto Environmental Alliance, said the group thinks it's essential for companies that make packaging to take responsibility for the garbage they produce, and getting cups into the recycling system is a good move.

But she added, "I don't think it's going to make a huge difference." She said she thinks provincial targets for recycling under the new blue box regulations are too low.

She noted that many things that are already recyclable, such as plastic bottles, are still widely thrown in the trash and littered.

Alfred worries that making disposable cups recyclable may take the pressure off companies to find better solutions. 

Reusable cups that are available to borrow are shown alongside disposable cups at Suddenly Sally, a restaurant in Banff, Alta. (Submitted by Banff Borrows/Banff & Lake Louise Tourism)

She says encouraging reuse and making zero-use options available will make a much bigger difference in reducing plastic waste.

For example, in March, the City of Toronto started requiring businesses to accept customers' clean, reusable cups. Some cities such as Edmonton, Banff, Alta., and Terrebonne and Mascouche, Que,  have started requiring businesses to offer reusable cups to dine-in customers.

Cup "library" programs that let people borrow reusable cups and return them around the city have also popped up in some communities, including Toronto and Banff.

"Given the choice between single-use anything and reuse, reuse is the better option," Wallis said.