Study Shows Majority of Foodservice Items in Residential Recycling Stream are Clean

The Foodservice Packaging Institute, the trade association for the foodservice packaging industry in North America, recently commissioned an audit on materials in the residential recycling stream to determine whether levels of food residue on foodservice packaging differed from food residue levels on food contact packaging items that are traditionally included in recycling programs.

Foodservice packaging is packaging used by restaurants, fast food chains and similar establishments for ready-to-eat foods, and includes items such as pizza boxes, paper cups, plastic cups and clamshells, and aluminum trays. Food contact packaging is packaging that comes into direct contact with pre-packaged food sold at stores. It includes items such as cardboard rounds from frozen pizza, paper ice cream tubs, peanut butter jars and food cans.

Over the course of two days, Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) conducted an audit at a MRF in Michigan. Thirteen samples of incoming residential recyclables averaging 200 pounds each were sorted into categories based on material type and food contact versus foodservice packaging. The samples were rated using a visual rating scale based on the level of food residue present.

The study found that a vast majority of food contact and foodservice items in the recycling stream were rated as a level 1 (defined as clean packaging with no food residue) or a level 2 (defined as, clean packaging, with some crumbs or staining from oils). Paperboard and plastic containers, both for food contact and foodservice categories, had similar and extremely low rates of residue. Peanut butter jars, plastic salad clamshells, ice cream cartons and pizza boxes were found to have the most food residue. Two categories in which more than 10% of the items had significant residue (ratings of 4 and 5) were corrugated foodservice packaging (17%) and molded fiber foodservice (23%).

“The Foodservice Packaging Institute seeks to increase the recovery of foodservice packaging in the residential stream,” said Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute. “The quality of the recycling stream is key to recovery efforts and the goals of material recovery facilities and end markets, who need clean materials for successful recycling. The audits help to provide additional information on what little difference there is between food contact and foodservice packaging items in the ability to process materials for recycling.”

The findings of the 2022 study are similar to the findings of a pair of baseline studies from 2013 and 2014, also commissioned by the trade association. Download the study summary at FPI Food Residue Study 2022 and get more information on FPI and foodservice packaging recycling at www.RecycleFSP.org.