A packaging breakthrough
Not a lot of people know this, but paper cups are not recyclable. Soon to make its debut on the UK high streets is the “Green Your Cup” which is completely recyclable.
More than 2.5bn paper cups are thrown away each year in the UK. Very few are recycled and the rest end up in landfill. This creates 25,000 tonnes of waste per annum. Enough to fill London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Conventional paper cups are made from paper laminated with plastic. Under EU regulations, coffee cups cannot be made of 100% paper or cardboard alone. They have to have a layer of plastic which is bonded to the inside of the cup to keep your drink warm and to stop the cup going soggy. Almost all recycling plants will reject paper cups as it is almost impossible to remove the bonded plastic from within the cup. The result is they all end up in landfill.
The British entrepreneur, Martin Myerscough who also invented the “Cardboard bottle” which is now being used for milk and wine, has now invented this recyclable cup. It has a very thin layer of plastic inside the cup which is designed to separate from the paper in the recycling process. This leaves 100% paper which can be recycled time and time again.
The company is currently in talks with coffee shop chains and supermarkets in the hope that the product can be rolled out nationally before the end of the year.
Myerscough said: “I always thought it was such a waste that disposable coffee cups couldn’t be easily recycled. In these times of limited resources and diminishing landfill space, a single-use cup that can’t be recycled is an indulgence we just cannot afford. I hope Green Your Cup will make a difference to how people think about the wastefulness of some of our everyday habits.
“You can recycle Green Your Cup with your paper and cardboard and it comes back as a newspaper several times, extending the life of such high quality paper well beyond the half an hour it takes to drink a coffee.”
Such a simple but great idea!
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