Collaborative efforts needed to solve Coffee Cup recycling issues, states UK packaging company

20 Mar 2018 --- DS Smith – a UK based packaging and paper company – announces that it could recycle up to 2.5 billion coffee cups per year if the British government answers on calls to improve cup collection.

DS Smith state that every year, 2.5 billion cups are thrown in the trash– enough to reach around the world more than five times – and that they are committed to providing a solution to this wasteful reality.

This solution, they claim, has been found, but it will require collaboration between different infrastructure bodies.

"We have been working around the clock to solve the throw-away coffee cup challenge, as enjoying a latte has become part of British culture. We could recycle up to two and a half billion cups each year, but we need the recycling collection infrastructure to be far better if we are to reach the goal of recycling every last cup,” says Peter Clayson, General Manager for DS Smith Recycling.

“There are two challenges to recycling a high volume of coffee cups. Firstly, there is the plastic lining that must be removed from the cups; then we need to ensure that the cups have not been too badly soiled by food waste. If we can work together with local councils, coffee sellers, and the waste management sector to improve segregation of the cups and develop a comprehensive collection infrastructure, we can make a huge difference together.”

Currently, the UK only recycles one in every 400 coffee cups, and just 1 percent of consumers bring their own reusable cups.

DS Smith has written to the government to call for measures to support better cup collection, and it has provided details of its coffee cup recycling capacity to the PCRRG (Paper Cup Recycling and Recovery Group) of which it is a member. The PCRRG, a new development, radically improves the UK’s ability to reprocess its used coffee cups.