Community Updates

At Last! Time To Recycle Coffee Cups In Denver

Sustana partners with Alpine Waste & Recycling to recover items from trash

Published 6 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Sustana partners with Alpine Waste & Recycling to recover items from trash

Alpine Waste & Recycling, the undisputed leader in Colorado recycling innovations, in collaboration with Sustana, a manufacturer of premium, sustainable recycled fibers and paper products with the smallest environmental footprint, has completed its long-awaited plans to separate thousands of coffee cups from the local trash stream.

In conjunction with the Foodservice Packaging Institute and FPI’s Community Partnership program, Alpine recently agreed to an arrangement with Sustana’s recycled fiber mill in De Pere, Wis., that will allow all environmentally conscious coffee shop patrons to begin tossing their empty cups into the recycling bin, assuming the coffee shop has a pick-up arrangement with Alpine.

Until now, the complex material of the standard coffee cup made the cups difficult, if not impossible, to recycle in an economically feasible manner. Alpine executives decided a year ago that they wanted to be first to break the coffee cup recycling barrier in Denver.

Sustana Vice-President of North American Sales Jay Hunsberger said his company is ready to begin processing the coffee cups as soon as Alpine can collect its first truckload, possibly as soon as next month.

“We are pleased to offer this important service to the recycling industry, and we’re especially pleased with the partnership, which provides asolution to the collection of used cups, a long-standing impediment to cup recycling. Our state-of-the-art equipment allows us to continue these kinds of breakthrough partnerships,” Hunsberger said.

Alpine previously led the way in the recycling of other, equally difficult materials such as juice cartons, Styrofoam and rigid plastics. Alpine was also the first to use a robot to help with separation of recycling materials; and that robot will be instrumental in the recycling of coffee cups.

“We take great pride in the innovations we have brought to the industry,” said Alpine founder John Griffith. “We are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to make these kinds of advancements.”

Studies in recent years have indicated to Alpine that the recycling plant might receive as many as five tons of coffee cups per month at the start of the program, depending in large part upon consumer awareness and willingness to participate.

Learn more about Sustana here.