ReMA’s ISRI Specifications Recognize Growing U.S. Paper Cup Recycling Access

Recycling access for paper cups has reached a new milestone in the United States. According to the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), 20% of the U.S. population now lives in communities that accept both hot and cold paper cups for recycling - a fourfold increase from roughly 5% a decade ago.

Reflecting this growth, ReMA added paper cups to its inbound residential single- and dual-stream specifications in 2025, recognizing the increased market acceptance of this valuable source of fiber needed for manufacturing.

ReMA's ISRI Specificationsopens in a new tab do not mandate that recyclers must accept certain materials. Rather, the Specifications set standards for the quality of recycled materials and serve as a guide for buyers and sellers of recycled commodities around the world.

Like all changes to ReMA's ISRI Specifications, this one started with a public request for a change, said Natalie Messer Betts, ReMA's Vice President of Sustainability and Materials Systems. The change was reviewed by ReMA's Paper Division and MRF Committee, opened to public comment, and approved by the board.

"Changes to ReMA's specifications give an official indicator to the wider community that the market has shifted," she said. "So, this change was an important signal to the recycling community that cup acceptance had become more widespread."

With more than 250 billion paper cups used globally each year, continued investment in advanced sortation systems and technologies that address wax and polyethylene coatings can help unlock greater supplies of recovered paper for recycled fiber manufacturing supply chains.

"There have been advancements both at the paper mill and the MRF to make this change," Betts said. "Once paper cups were accepted by mills, sortation had to be addressed because most paper in a MRF is 2D, but a paper cup is 3D."

Decades ago, paper cups faced recycling challenges due to the thin plastic liner required for the cups' structure. Pulping systems within mills remove the plastic lining from the cups. While pulping systems have always been designed to remove things like the clear plastic window in an envelope, newer systems can do this more efficiently and recover a higher percentage of the fiber from the package.

More haulers and recyclers have started to accept paper cups, including several ReMA members such as WM, First Star Recycling, Inc., Rumpke Waste & Recycling, and Casella Waste Systems. In November 2025, WM announced it added plastic cups made of polypropylene and paper to-go cups to its list of accepted items due to recent automation upgrades at its MRFs. In January 2026, Casella announced that paper cups can be recycled in curbside recycling as long as they're empty and clean.

Though this is a great achievement for paper recycling, there is more work to do so that recyclability of these materials can continue to expand across communities in the U.S.

"Continued investment in our recycling infrastructure will support the expansion of the technology that enables more cup recycling," Betts said. "Additionally, more households need access to convenient recycling, including residents in apartments and condos."

Photo by Brando Makes Branding on Unsplash.