Paper products manufacturer James Cropper has received the first load of coffee cups from a materials recycling facility in London, UK, as part of its recycling programme that transforms the cups into paper-based products.
The company recently developed its CupCycling technology, which allows the recycling of disposable paper cups in the UK in a bid to reduce their environmental impact.
Using the technology, the company separates polyethylene lining and paper materials contained in the coffee cups and then uses the paper fibre to create deluxe paper by upcycling it.
The company has partnered with Paper Round, which collects cups from 5,000 businesses in London at its sorting facility based in Purfleet, Essex.
James Cropper market development manager Richard Burnett said: “It’s vital the coffee cups are collected in a separate stream so that the virgin paper used to make them can be recycled back into valuable products like our custom-made papers and Colourform plastic-free packaging.”
The products resulting from the recycling include Selfridges bags and the Extract paper range.
Paper Round director Alison Roe said: “Paper Round is all about real recycling, so working with James Cropper to ensure that our customers’ cups are made into high-quality paper was very important to us.
“We look forward to recycling many more cups from our customers as we roll the scheme out.”
James Cropper recently urged businesses ‘to do the right thing’ by adopting a coffee cup recycling scheme.
The company has also called for improvements in the infrastructure sector that could help tackle the threat posed by single-use cups.
It is estimated that around three billion coffee cups are being used in the UK annually.
The UK Environment Audit Committee set out its target of recycling all single-use coffee cups by 2023.
