BBIA Managing Director David Newman has spoken to Packaging News about the recent media debate over coffee cups, saying that infrastructure and materials make currently their recycling too difficult.
In the article, published on the site on Tuesday 29 March, Newman suggested that a 5-10p tax on coffee cups could reduce consumption of “throw-away” cups. The money raised from the tax could then pay for more advanced infrastructure that could separate materials.
He added: “In the recycling industry it is a known fact that coffee cups are mostly not recycled. They are often made from laminated plastic and cardboard together, which makes it almost impossible to recycle as the process and cost to do that is not economical.
He claimed that biodegradable cups have a part to play and outlined work done in Italy. There, high street chains or transport carriers offer compostable coffee cups and tableware which are sent for anaerobic digestion and composting with the food waste. Around 700 million compostable cups have been used on the Italian market in 2015.
Newman said that stadium events make it easier to recycle packaging in a closed loop system. The waste chain is easier to control. However, in coffee shops there isn’t the same amount of control and there is no way of tracing where the discarded coffee cup is disposed.
“Unfortunately, recyclers usually determine that the value of the raw material of the majority of coffee cups is not enough as detaching laminated and cardboard is expensive and difficult and opt to incinerate it.”
The full story is available to read on packagingnews.co.uk