What Every Packaging Company Can Learn From the Carton Recycling Journey
Packaging companies should think about how their materials move through recovery and build in recyclability from the start.
Nov 18, 2025 12:00 PM ET
Previously published by PackagingDive
Fifteen years ago, many food and beverage cartons ended up in the trash. At the time, most recycling programs didn’t accept them, consumers didn’t know if they could recycle them and end markets didn’t recognize the value in the recovered material.
That’s changed. Most households across the U.S. now have access to food and beverage carton recycling, either at the curb or at recycling drop-off collection sites. An industry group helped to orchestrate stronger end markets, upgraded sorting technology and education to make carton recycling access available to the majority of the population. What started as a small project soon became a model for progress in the recycling industry.
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