Thursday March 28, 2024
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Takeout Food Packaging Added To Curbside Recycling

Mayor Greg Fischer announced that, effective today, food take-out containers have been added to the list of items that Louisville residents can dispose of in their curbside recycling carts.

That includes packaging from burgers, chicken, pizza, tacos and other to-go containers as well as drink cups.

Metro Public Works is partnering with the Foodservice Packaging Institute to educate residents on the initiative. The FPI is providing the department with a grant of up to $10,000 to fund a recycling outreach campaign. The wider curbside recycling is available to over 84,000 households in the city’s Urban Service District served by Public Works.

QRS Recycling, Louisville’s recycling processor, has added the new items to the list of materials it already handles. Expanded recycling supports the goal established by Mayor Fischer to divert 90 percent of recyclable material from our landfill by the year 2042.

“This is another step in the long-term plan to create an even cleaner and more sustainable future for our city,” the Mayor said.

Residents are asked to empty all food and liquid containers before placing them in the recycling bin, though it’s not necessary to make the items perfectly clean.

“Louisville is the latest in a growing list of municipalities that are recycling food service packaging,” said Lynn Dyer, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, the industry’s leading trade association. “We are thankful to the city and QRS for their roles in enabling food service packaging to be recycled.”

In 2015 Louisville collected nearly 23 million pounds of recyclables that were sorted by QRS. To learn more and see a list of all acceptable curbside recyclables, log on to: www.Louisville.gov/recycling.

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