Recyclable coffee cups
I was intrigued and inquired further.
Define recyclable cups.
If care about the environment, post pandemic, sit and relax at a coffee shop with coffee served in glass or ceramic.
Encouraging takeaway cups to be spread far and wide is not helping the environment.
Seven Districts kindly responded to my inquiry on their recyclable coffee cups:
Hey Keith, thanks for asking about our recyclable cups! Each of our take away cups uses what’s called ‘Earth Coating’, rather than traditional PE or PLA used on standard take away cups. This coating is made using a blend of Calcium Carbonate which fragments away from the paperboard into small particles which can be easily separated during the standard recycling process. This means they can be processed alongside standard paper recycling as if there wasn’t even a coating on them. Great news for take away cups:)
I was invited to pay a visit, which I did.
Seven Districts Coffee House lies in the middle of nowhere, half way between Lincoln and Market Rasen, no bus stop, and to walk along the A46 not feasible as would be a death trap. The nearest bus stop at Snarford Crossroads, a fifteen minute walk back to the coffee shop along a very dangerous road with limited sight lines.
Luckily the bus dropped me off outside, but to return a 40–45 minute walk along a country lane to Welton to pick up a bus.
I was served an excellent cappuccino, the takeaway cup I retained, the intention to pop on a compost heap.
Interesting, never before come across these takeaway cups. But, for paper recycling, need clean dry paper. Coffee cups, wet and contaminated.
These cups ought to compost. It would be interesting to see with a liquid, how long before cups go soggy.
I am no fan of takeaway cups, of whatever type, the worst plastic-lined, destined for landfill or incineration, compostable may find their way to a compost heap. Far better, relax at a coffee shop with coffee served in glass or ceramic. And no way take a reusable cup to a coffee shop during a pandemic and expect it to be filled. It is to introduce an unnecessary disease vector putting staff and clientele at risk.
Recycled paper to be of value, has to be clean and dry. A dirty coffee cup?
Will they compost?
As an experiment, I have filled one with dirty water from washing up bowl, not cleaned out what remans of dried coffee. To be left overnight. Will it leak?
To then be thrown on a compost heap.
Note: After two days, cup was soggy, two and a half days, cup was leaking.
The mineral content in EarthCoating® displaces up to 51% of the plastic by weight that would otherwise be found in a traditional plastic (polyolefin) coating. — Smart Planet Technologies
Oh dear, not quite the saviour claimed to be. If only calcium carbonate, then ideal, but all Earth Coating claim is a 40% reduction in plastic. We now have a mix of calcium carbonate and plastic. If designed to micro fragment, do we not now have a problem, we are creating micro-plastic, under the illusion we are helping the environment? Maybe not such a good idea after all to put on the compost heap.
The ratio of calcium carbonate to plastic varies depending upon the specification for so-called Earth Coating (always be wary a greenwash name).
- EC-40: 40% Calcium Carbonate / 60% LDPE — ideal for coffee cups, folding cartons, food trays, etc.
- EC-51: 51% Calcium Carbonate / 49% LDPE — ideal for coffee cups, folding cartons, food trays, etc.
- EC-COEX-EU: 43% Calcium Carbonate / 57% LDPE — ideal for coffee cups, folding cartons, food trays, etc. to be used throughout Europe.
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene. It was the first grade of polyethylene, produced in 1933 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) using a high pressure process via free radical polymerization. Its manufacture employs the same method today.
There are misleading claims and comparisons being made. We see the same with compostable and aluminium coffee capsules.
A possible answer would be naturally occurring biopolymers, but this raises other issues the source of the materials for the biopolymers, the energy required for their their production.
What are termed reCups made using Earth Coating, need segregation, dedicated collection.
The coating sinks to the bottom in water flotation tanks. What then happens to this calcium carbonate plastic sludge?
The claim compostable cups cannot be recycled is false, they can be composted. Whether they are composted or will compost on a garden compost heap is a different issue.
Let us assume after taking out their coffee, what then?
- toss in a hedge
- put in recycling bin
- put in general waste bin
Walking down the country lane, fly tipping in a ditch, but no takeaway cups.
Those who know takeaway cups are plastic lined and cannot be recycled will put in the general waste bins.
Those who think paper, will pop in recycling bin. On collection, will be separated out on the assumption a plastic-lined cup.
Therefore best advice for our coffee shop. Serve in compostable takeaway cups, a bin for compostable cups, then compost in the garden.
All these offered solutions reCup, compostable cups, reusable cups, are addressing symptoms, not the underlying problem of grab it and go, instant gratification, wanton consumerism.
Respect the coffee, the growers, the pickers, the roasters, the barista relax and enjoy specialty coffee served in glass or ceramic.
