Conventional paper coffee cups are made from 95% cardboard and 5% polyethylene. These cups contain a thin layer of bonded plastic that keeps drinks warm and stops the paper from getting soggy.
Unfortunately, this plastic is bonded so tightly to the cardboard that the cups need special facilities to separate the linings, which leads to a vast number of recycling plants rejecting them and sending them straight to landfill sites.
3Boys Limited’s new Green Your Cup creation features a polyethylene lining that easily separates from the cup during the recycling process, meaning that these cups can be disposed of in paper recycling bins.
“I always thought it was such a waste that disposable coffee cups couldn’t be easily recycled,” said Myerscough. “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.
“People will be shocked to find out that the paper cups they use rarely get recycled and they ought to be. It’s a scandal! We hope that Green Your Cup will become standard in the booming coffee industry so that we can put an end to this shocking environmental shame.”
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024