A British company has unveiled a disposable coffee cup that can be thrown into newspaper recycling bins.
The Frugalpac cup is made by gluing the thin plastic liner in so lightly that it separates from the paper in the recycling process, in contrast to existing cups which require specialist recycling facilities because the plastic is bonded.
At present, there are only two sites in the UK – both in the north – that can recycle conventional cups.
Campaigners have warned that disposable coffee cups handed out in their billions are “virtually impossible” to recycle despite major cafe chains claiming their’s are eco-friendly, and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall drew attention to the problem earlier this year with his #wastenot campaign.
The packaging industry and major coffee retailers launched a Paper Cup Manifesto in June with the objective of significantly increasing paper cup recovery and recycling rates by 2020.
According to some estimates, fewer than 1% of the 2.5 billion paper and plastic cups used in the UK each year are recycled, leading to criticism of high street cafes for stamping them with recycling logos.
Mr Myerscough said: “It’s great to see Hugh’s campaign has had such an effect and that there’s now a real commitment across the industry to tackle this problem.
“People were shocked to learn that existing paper cups are only used once and rarely get recycled.
“We’ve spent the last two years developing our cup and we hope now that coffee chains and cup producers will see Frugalpac as an answer to this issue.
“We really hope that Frugalpac becomes the standard in the industry so people can get on with enjoying their coffee without worrying about what damage the cup does to the environment afterwards.”
A Starbucks spokeswoman said: “We are very interested in finding out more about the Frugalpac cup and we will be testing it to see if it meets our standards for safety and quality with a view to trialling its recyclability.”
