Plastic Cups Recycling Bin Plastic cups, including solo cups, can be placed in your curbside recycling bin for San Luis Obispo County. Rigid plastic cups should be washed out and dried before they are put in the recycling. Food traces contaminate the recycling process. Ways to Reduce Choose Reusable Cups Red Cup Living makes a reusable cup that looks like the classic red Solo® cup. Consider purchasing these cups instead of disposable ones in order to reduce your plastic waste. Choose Recyclable Cups The Ball Aluminum Cup can be reused or recycled with aluminum cans. Not only is it a more eco-friendly choice than plastic, it will keep your drinks colder, too. Reusable Packaging For Businesses Check out Upstream’s catalog of reusable packaging and unpackaging innovators that provide ways for consumers to obtain products, mostly food and beverages, in returnable, reusable, or refillable packaging – or they deliver products to consumers unpackaged altogether. Did You Know? Plastic #6 Is Difficult to Recycle The United States throws away enough plastic cups and disposable dinnerware to wrap around the Earth three hundred times if stacked together. Why can’t these plastics cups be recycled? Solo cups are made from polystyrene, or plastic #6, which is not recycled by most cities. Plastic in Our Bodies Styrene, a component of polystyrene, has been found in 100 percent of human fat tissue samples dating back to 1986. It is known to cause cancer in animals, and suspected to be both cancerous for humans as well.