The process of recycling our paper and plastic materials is familiar to most of us. But what about their composite counterpart, the carton? Carton recycling infrastructure has expanded significantly in recent years, but many mixed plastic and paper cartons still don’t get recycled.

According to The Recycling Partnership’s 2024 State of Recycling report, only 21% of residential recyclables overall are captured in the United States, with packaging materials representing a significant opportunity for improvement. Despite this broader challenge, access to carton recycling has grown substantially.

Today, 61% of U.S. households can recycle food and beverage cartons through local programs—up from just 37% in 2011. In California, recent data shows that 72% of households have access to aseptic carton recycling, and 74% have access to gable-top carton recycling, reflecting significant infrastructure improvements in the state.

The United States is making real progress in this recycling category, however challenges remain. The carton recycling rate currently stands at approximately 20%, up from 6% in 2009, when the Carton Council formed.

Here’s updated information to help demystify carton recycling in 2025.

What Makes Up a Milk/Juice Carton?

A type of packaging for food and beverage products, cartons are easy to recognize. They are available in two types—shelf-stable (or aseptic) and refrigerated (gable-top).

• Shelf-stable cartons, as the name suggests, can be placed on store shelves and are used mostly for juice, milk, soy milk, soup, broth, and wine stored at room temperature.
• Refrigerated cartons are found in grocery stores’ refrigerated sections and contain products such as milk, juice, cream, and egg substitutes.

Cartons require fewer natural resources to transport due to their efficient product-to-packaging ratio. On average, a product sold in a shelf-stable carton is 94% product and 6% packaging. This means that fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced since products in cartons can be shipped using fewer trucks.

Paper, plastic, and aluminum are layered together to make cartons: A typical shelf-stable carton averages about 70% paper, 25% plastic, and 5% aluminum. A familiar form of this packaging is unrefrigerated soup or wine cartons.

Refrigerated cartons skip the aluminum and usually use an 80% paper and 20% plastic combination to hold the liquid. The Carton Council of Canada provides extensive information about the composition of different types of cartons and their recyclability.

There are other products that we commonly refer to as “cartons,” including ice cream cartons and take-out cartons. But from a recycling standpoint, these are not the same as shelf-stable and refrigerated carton types and are not included in the recyclable carton category.

Top Responsible Carton Manufacturers

Your role in recycling improvements starts in the store aisle. Take the time to look at the maker of a carton before buying. Search for companies that have joined the Carton Council recycling initiative: Tetra Pak, Elopak, SIG Combibloc, and Pactiv Evergreen (formerly Evergreen Packaging).

Why Should I Recycle Cartons?

Recycling your cartons is a great way to keep unnecessary waste out of landfills, but your green contribution can start when you are shopping. Look for cartons that contain recycled materials. You will conserve energy by choosing a sustainable product package in the first place.

The high quality of the materials used in cartons makes them very desirable for remanufacturing into new products. All three materials used to make cartons can be reused. The challenge is separating those components during the recycling process. You can help by rinsing out the carton before putting it in your curbside program, if it is accepted (check whether your local hauler accepts paper/plastic cartons using your ZIP code).

Carton manufacturers are committed to increasing access to carton recycling in the United States, avoiding landfill disposal, and ensuring that the materials used to make cartons are reused once the product they contain is gone. There is growing demand for recycled fiber. According to recent data, U.S. mills consumed 32.7 million tons of recycled paper in 2024, up from 31.3 million tons in 2023.

Cartons are not recyclable: False

Cartons are recyclable. Made mostly from paper, cartons are in high demand to be made into new products. Manufacturers of cartons have joined forces in the Carton Council to increase access to carton recycling across the United States. As of 2025, carton recycling is now available to over 77 million U.S. households—a nearly 240% increase since 2009.

The Carton Council worked with key players in the recycling industry, from recycling facilities to paper mills, to ensure that cartons are handled properly at recycling facilities. There are now thousands of carton recycling programs nationwide, with access continuing to expand.

I can’t recycle cartons because they don’t have a symbol on them: False

To qualify for the recycling symbol, the product must be recyclable, and recycling of that product must be available to the majority of U.S. households. The Federal Trade Commission regulates this process. While cartons are making progress toward placing the recycling symbol on packages, many cartons still do not feature it.

Cartons are wax-coated: False

Cartons do not contain any wax and have not for many years. Modern cartons are made mainly from paper. Gable-top (or refrigerated) cartons contain additional layers of plastic. In contrast, aseptic (or shelf-stable) cartons contain additional layers of plastic and aluminum.

Cartons are designed to keep the product as fresh as possible, blocking out light and air that can cause spoilage.

A cool fact about cartons: The colorful labeling on the outside is printed on the thin plastic layer. When recycled, removing that layer leaves behind valuable paper fibers that are used to make new paper products.

How Does Carton Recycling Work?

What happens to that carton after it’s picked up from your recycling bin? Typically, its journey begins at a materials recovery facility (MRF) where it gets separated from other waste and types of recyclables.

From there, cartons take one of two paths:

Path 1: Paper Mills

When cartons reach a paper mill, they’re prized for their long, strong fibers. Jason Pelz, VP of Sustainability for Tetra Pak, told WasteDive that fiber quality makes cartons a dependable part of a mill’s feedstock mix.

They are mixed with water in a giant blender called a hydra-pulper that separates the paper from the plastic and aluminum. Once separation is complete, the paper fiber is ready to be used in new products, including tissues, office paper, paper towels.

Plastic and aluminum are also collected from the hydropulping process. In North America, it is usually left in a combined state with the aluminum, creating a material called a poly/al mix. The poly/al mix has a limited secondary-use market, but some mills have burned it to generate energy for their facilities while others sell it to specialized recyclers who turn it into pallets, crates, furniture, and tiles.

Path 2: Building Materials Manufacturing

A rapidly expanding option for carton recycling transforms whole cartons into durable building materials. Rather than pulping cartons for their fiber, some facilities are converting them into roof cover boards and construction materials.

Cartons are shredded into small pieces and then pressed under heat to form large sheets. The heat melts the polymers in the cartons, binding everything together without added chemicals or water, to produce finished boards, typically 4×8 feet, are strong, that are moisture-resistant and suitable for a variety of building applications.

The infrastructure for carton recycling continues to expand across the United States. Shortening the distance between points of collection and processing is important to making the recycling system more sustainable than today’s take-make-waste approach to pakcaging. Here are some of the key facilities:

Building Materials Facilities

ReCB Iowa LLC – Des Moines, Iowa-based ReCB Iowa reopened in August 2025 after acquiring and upgrading the former Continuus Materials facility. This facility produces Everboard™, a high-performance roof cover board made from post-consumer food and beverage cartons. The facility has the capacity to recycle approximately 10,000 tons of cartons annually.

ReCB California LLC in Lodi, California, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025, this new facility will process roughly 750 tons of food and beverage cartons each month, adding West Coast capacity for carton recycling that will produce the same Everboard™ building materials. ReCB plans to open up to five additional facilities across the country in the coming years.

Paper Mills

Numerous paper mills across the United States accept cartons as part of their recovered fiber feedstock. More than 40 Major paper mills accept polycoated paper products, including cartons, representing significant growth in end-market capacity over the past few years:

• Pratt Industries operates six 100% recycled paper mills across the United States, including facilities in Henderson, Kentucky, and Wapakoneta, Ohio. Pratt recovers more than 3 million tons of recyclable material annually.
• International Paper operates recycling facilities nationwide that collect, sort, and process 7 million tons of recovered paper annually.
• Greif operates multiple mills, including facilities in Delaware and Ohio, that produce 1.5 million tons of paperboard annually, with more than 95% recycled content.
• Sonoco, WestRock, Carotell Paperboard, and KapStone operate mills in South Carolina and other locations that consume over 1.2 million tons of old corrugated cardboard and other recovered fiber annually.

Carton Council Programs

The Carton Council of North America offers several programs to expand carton recycling:

School Grant Program The Carton Council provides grants of up to $5,000 to U.S. and Canadian K-12 schools to for recycling programs. Only 10% of U.S. primary and secondary schools currently recycle cartons.

Grant funds can be used to purchase collection bins, create educational materials and signage, or support other activities that promote school carton recycling.

Municipal and MRF Support: Tetra Pak and the Carton Council also offer grants, resources, and technical support to help municipalities and MRFs expand carton collection and sorting capacity. The grants can be used for equipment upgrades, optimizing sorting processes, and establishing connections between sellers and buyers of recycled carton bales.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

California’s packaging EPR program (SB 54) is driving significant investments in carton recycling infrastructure. The state now has 23 counties served by MRFs that accept and sort cartons—an increase of seven counties since April 2025. California’s “Truth in Recycling” law (SB 343) also requires that products can be labeled recyclable only if they meet certain recycling thresholds, providing an additional incentive for infrastructure development.

Mail-In and Drop-Off Options

While curbside collection is the most-used method for carton recycling where available, some areas may have limited access. For residents without curbside carton recycling:

1. Check for local drop-off locations using the Carton Council’s locator tool or the Earth911 Recycling Search.
2. Contact your local MRF directly to ask if they accept cartons. Some MRFs accept cartons even if they’re not listed in curbside programs, particularly if they serve specific haulers like Republic Services or Rumpke Waste & Recycling.
3. Advocate for carton recycling in your community by contacting your local waste management provider or municipality to request that cartons be added to the list of accepted materials.

What Do I Need to Know About Recycling Cartons?

• Always check with your local recycling or waste-disposal service for guidelines in your community. Curbside pickup is gaining popularity, but is still not available everywhere. Use the Carton Council locator or contact your hauler directly.
• Remove any lids, straws, or extras that come with your packaging. These should go in the garbage.
• Recycle only empty cartons. Rinsing isn’t required before recycling, but it does help ensure that the container is empty an reduces potential odor or pest issues in the recyclables.
• It is not necessary to flatten your cartons, and, in fact, it can slow the recycling process. MRF sorting equipment is programmed to recognize a carton’s three-dimensional shape.
• When in doubt, keep it out. This rule of thumb is essential for all recycling practices. Rather than risk contaminating your local recycling stream, keep materials that you aren’t sure about out of your recycling.

The EPA estimates that expanding recycling access and infrastructure could result in recycling an additional 38 million to 45 million tons of packaging material annually.

With new facilities opening, expanding paper mill acceptance, growing municipal programs, and new end markets for recycled carton material developing, the infrastructure is making progress toward matching consumer expectations. The Carton Council and its member companies continue working toward a future where carton recycling is as commonplace as recycling paper and cardboard.

Editor’s note: Originally published on November 20, 2015, this article was updated in November 2018 and most recently revised in November 2025 with current statistics, facility information, and program details.