Coffee cups are the tip of an iceberg of issues around
packaging recycling and with recyclable coffee cups Melbourne as well, there has been
some confusion often where the cardboard sleeve is recyclable and may have a
recyclable symbol on it, and people interpret that then as the whole cup being
recyclable. There probably is some work to do on labelling. Unrecycled plastic
takes hundreds of years to break down, meaning lots of it ends
up impacting the natural environment. In order to ensure that disposable
cups conform to health and safety requirements, they are made with paper fiber
and a 5 percent polyethylene lining which is bonded together under a high heat.
This use of mixed material ensures the strength and safety of the cups, but it
renders the cups difficult to recycle. Although both the paper and plastic
components of disposable cups are recyclable, the materials need to be
separated out, which is a more complicated process than traditional paper is
recycling. It is because there is a very tightly bonded polyethylene liner that
prevents the cup from basically soaking up the contents of the liquid. Because
that is tightly bonded it is quite challenging to remove it in a normal paper
mill process, is my understanding. For that reason, it can either contaminate
the paper stream or it can slow the paper stream down in terms of having to
operate a slower process to recover that polyethylene liner. Most recyclable coffee cups Melbourne have a plastic coating that must be separated from paper before
recycling, which ordinary paper recycling systems are not set up to do. In some
cases, coffee chains are making recycling more difficult for councils because
the coffee cup materials are getting mixed up with the paper that many
householders have taken time and trouble over collecting, resulting in more
waste going to landfill.
Another significant barrier to the widespread of
recyclable coffee cups is the challenges of recycling packaging that has come
into contact with food or drink. Consumers have been led to believe that
laminated cups are widely recyclable and widely recycled through conventional
systems when in fact, relatively very few pass into a processor and even fewer
are properly processed to extract the full value of the resources they contain.
There’s a lot of reusable cups to be found on the market, some are made of
glass, stainless steel, plastic and then you have bamboo which is considered to
be the best and most environment friendly option available, because not only is
the cup reusable, it is also biodegradable. Looks almost exactly the same as a
normal disposable cup, but there's a big difference. This one can be used over
and over again and even if something happens to it and you have to throw it
away, don't worry too much. The cup is made of bamboo, which means it will
return to nature within a year, if composted. Not every coffee shop is going to
switch to sustainable products overnight, and neither are the manufacturers. As
people begin to refuse single use cups with their coffee, proprietors will
adapt and adopt the same ideals their patrons display. In the end the power
lies with you to make a difference.
