Carton recycling scrutinized in California

Producers of coated paperboard beverage cartons have put considerable effort into seeking out and building up end markets for the multimaterial form of packaging.

Recent scrutiny in California, however, has included acknowledgment by a material recovery facility (MRF) operator that it now conducts a negative sort of gable-top beverage cartons and includes them in its residuals (non-marketable materials) percentage.

In late December, an article on the Los Angeles Times website called into question whether enough cartons were being genuinely recycled (converted into usable recycled-content materials) for the packaging format to retain its “chasing arrows” recycling symbol in 2032, when a new California regulation takes effect.

That story by staff writer Susanne Rust referred to the cartons being included in exported mixed paper shipments to nations including Malaysia and Vietnam, referring to such shipments as “illegal.” (The United States did not ratify its adherence to the Basel Convention and is not covered by recent “waste” export regulations introduced in Europe. Some nations that formerly accepted the material, however, have placed import bans on mixed paper.)

The article also mentions a letter received by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) in mid-December last year that could indicate the buyers overseas are not welcoming the inclusion of those cartons in their baled recovered paper shipments.

A document dated Dec. 22, 2025, available on the CalRecycle website also refers to that letter and its potential impact on end-of-life cartons as they relate to California Senate Bill 343, sometimes referred to as the “truth in recycling” law.

The document lists CalRecycle Director Zoe Heller and California Secretary for Environmental Protection Yana Garcia on its letterhead.

It refers to previous CalRecycle polices pertaining to gable-top carton recycling before stating, “Since [a recent] update, CalRecycle received a letter, dated Dec. 15, 2025, from WM, the operator of the Sacramento Recycling & Transfer Station, stating that the facility is no longer sorting cartons into any sorted paper grades. Instead, the facility is sorting cartons into the processing residuals that are sent to landfill disposal.”

Since that MRF serves five counties, CalRecycle has determined that cartons now are recyclable in 53 percent of California’s counties rather than the previous figure of 68 percent.

According to the Times article, that dips the carton recycling availability rate in the Golden State to below 60 percent of the state’s counties, below the “truth in recycling” threshold.

Rust of the Times reached out to Texas-based trade group The Carton Council, which said it is aware of WM’s decision in Sacramento and says the facility is working to divert the cartons away from its residuals stream “once a local end market is available.”