In November, Starbucks Coffee Company and International Paper, with Mississippi River Pulp, LLC., completed a six-week pilot project that – for the first time – proved Starbucks used paper cups can be recycled into new paper cups.

“We still have a lot of work to do to reach our 2015 goal, but we’re now in a much stronger position to build momentum across the recycling industry. Our next step is to test this concept in a major city, which we plan to do in collaboration with International Paper and Mississippi River in 2011,” said Jim Hanna, Starbucks director of Environmental Impact.

While some communities already recycle Starbucks paper cups, most do not have the infrastructure in place to handle collection, hauling, and processing due to a lack of demand for cup material by the recycling industry. To date, Mississippi River is the only pulp mill in the U.S. that has successfully recycled used cups into fiber suitable for producing new cups. The cup-to-cup pilot was conceived earlier this year at Starbucks second cup summit, which was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Starbucks launched the industry’s first paper cup containing post-consumer recycled fiber (PCF) in 2006, following several years of collaboration with Mississippi River. Over time, Starbucks switch to cups made from 10 percent PCF has diverted nearly 200 million pounds of paper from the landfill. While the company’s standard paper cups contain PCF made from office paper, the PCF used for the pilot project incorporates cup material.

Starbucks currently has another recycling pilot project underway in NYC. The company is collecting paper cups at 86 of its Manhattan stores to determine whether they can be recycled into bath tissue and paper towels. In early 2011, Starbucks plans to launch a new recycling pilot in Chicago, aiming to transform the company’s discarded paper cups into napkins for use in its stores. Over the past year, Starbucks has introduced front-of-store cup collection in Toronto and Seattle, where its cups can be recycled, and in San Francisco, where its cups can be composted.