ACT government officials say they've been inundated with that question from Canberra's coffee lovers after the ABC's War on Waste aired.

The show claimed Australians sent 50,000 coffee cups to landfill every half-hour because they couldn't be recycled.

But Actsmart senior manager Ros Malouf told an ACT parliamentary committee the program was wrong.

"Coffee cups are the question we get asked at every single event over and over and over. We're happy to let people know to put them in the recycling," Ms Malouf said during the annual reports hearing on Tuesday.

"War On Waste certainly had one view of recycling. The waste industry did a response to the War On Waste through their waste magazine which said that wasn't 100 per cent correct which was a bit too late to stop some of those thoughts so we're now actively letting people know ... 'put them in the recycling, it's okay, we'll sort it out at the other end'."

Whether coffee cups are recyclable or not depends on what they are made from, how they are disposed and which facilities they are treated in.

Most single use disposable cups are made from cardboard with a thin layer of plastic to make it waterproof.

Ms Malouf said most disposable coffee cups used in the ACT were able to be recycled.

"There are very few that are not recyclable so don't try and work it out at your coffee shop," she said.

There was one area she agreed with Craig Reucassel on - reusable cups were better.

"Either take a reusable cup is our first step and if you can't, definitely make sure you put it in your recycling bin. We'll sort it out for you," Ms Malouf said.

A Transport Canberra and City Services spokesman said there was no data to accurately say how many disposable coffee cups were used in the ACT each year.

However paper and cardboard bales made up about 48 per cent of the Materials Recovery Facility's output.

"The Materials Recovery Facility receives about 126,000 tonnes of recycling per year, with about 55,000 tonnes coming from business recycling, and the rest from residential/household collections. Coffee cups make up a small percentage of this stream," he said.

However because takeaway coffees are normally drunk in public places, he said they were often disposed of in general waste bins and some ended up as litter.

"Nearly 15 per cent of all litter items counted in the ACT consisted of take away food packaging in 2016/2017," he said.

Coffee cups were not the only product that presented a challenge for recycling facilities.

"Complex mixed material packaging along with poor labelling presents recycling challenges for many packaging items, not just coffee cups," he said.