ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County officially expanded its curbside collection program to include paper and clear plastic to-go cups as accepted recyclable items, effective Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
This update provides residents with a convenient option for recycling these common beverage containers.
The expanded program allows residents to place clean, empty cups and paper sleeves from fountain sodas and hot, frozen, and iced coffee beverages into their blue lid recycling carts.
To prepare cups for recycling, residents must empty any remaining liquids or ice and place the cups loosely, not bagged, inside the cart.
Straws, lids, stirrers, and stoppers remain prohibited from the program, as do foam, styrofoam, and colored party cups like Solo cups.
The program changes are possible due to advancements in processing capabilities at the area’s recycling facility, which is owned and operated by Waste Management Inc.
David Gregory, solid waste management division manager for Orange County Utilities, expressed the county’s satisfaction with the expansion. “Orange County is pleased to expand our residential recycling program to include paper and plastic to-go cups as acceptable materials,” Gregory said. “It’s a new take on the long-running reduce, reuse, recycle for materials that have value and diverts waste from landfills.”
Orange County’s collected recyclable materials are transported to regional Waste Management facilities, where they are sorted and baled into recovered items, which are then sold to processors and manufacturers for transformation into new products.
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