Paper, bottles and cans. That’s been the longtime refrain of TFC Recycling, which serves much of Hampton Roads. The company refers to these as the only items it can process at its plant in Chesapeake.
Acceptable paper was previously limited to items including paper bags, cardboard and milk cartons.
But, TFC recently announced it can also accept paper drink carriers, cups and containers such as those that hold coffee, soup and soda.
The company handles recycling in Norfolk, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Poquoson, Williamsburg and York and James City counties.
“This expansion offers 500,000 households the opportunity to recycle their clean and empty paper cups, keeping them out of landfills and allowing them to be converted into new products,” TFC said in a news release.
The cups should be clean, dry and not include plastic such as lids or coffee stirrers.
The change reflects a broader market shift. A growing number of paper mills are accepting paper cups in bales of mixed paper, according to the NextGen Consortium, which aims to address food packaging waste.
The cups were previously considered unrecyclable because of their typical plastic lining. But many mills have determined they can successfully recover valuable fiber and pulp despite the plastic coating, NextGen says.
The consortium, along with the Foodservice Packaging Institute, gave TFC Recycling a grant that helped fund new sorting technology using artificial intelligence. (It’s not the first recycler in Hampton Roads to invest in an AI system.)
Local officials are also working to educate residents about what can and cannot be recycled in Hampton Roads, including a Smart Start initiative by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
“Wishful recycling” remains one of the industry’s major challenges. Hoping to recycle as much as possible, people instead make it harder by clogging up machinery with prohibited items such as plastic food containers, electronics, clothes and toys. Plastic bags are particularly harmful.
Meanwhile, the Southeastern Public Service Authority, which handles most of the region’s trash, is finalizing a long-term contract that could eventually lead local governments to ditch separate recycling bins.
