Most consumers wrongly assume that their “takeaway” or “to go” paper coffee cups are an environmentally sound choice. Truth be told, these coffee cups are almost impossible to recycle.
To make these cups waterproof, the card is fused with polyethylene, a material that cannot be separated out again in a standard recycling mill.
An estimated 60 billion paper cups in the U.S. and 10,000 every 2 minutes in the UK end up in landfills every year because they can’t be recycled easily. That includes cups sold by all major coffee chains.
The millions of coffee cups used every day are made from virigin materials with a single use, thrown almost immediately into the bin – with a hefty carbon footprint to boot. Due to specific design features, one thin seam of card inside the cup comes into contact with the hot drink, so they have to be made from virgin paper pulp.
The sheer number of paper cups ending up in landfills has been described as a “crisis”. What makes the situation worse is that the poly-lined cups are technically capable of being recycled. This enables coffee companies to describe them as “recyclable” when in reality, this is only possible in a highly specialised recycling facility – of which there are only two in the UK. One of these sites has never actually dealt with a single paper cup – the other has processed a very tiny number. Overall it is estimated that 0.1 percent of cups are recycled.
The upshot is that millions of consumers each week are putting their coffee cups into recycling bins and they are not being recycled.
It is misleading for the thousands of people every day who thought they were doing their bit. The consequence of this is that the public think they are already recycling and therefore don’t know there’s a problem, so they don’t ask for a solution.
To do your bit either: Take 5 minutes to sit down and have your coffee in a mug – or treat yourself to a keepcup of sorts. There are some pretty snazzy designs in either recycled plastic or glass. Just remember to take it with you!