Caffeine hit: what happens to Britain's 3bn empty coffee cups?

Britons drink more than 8m takeaway coffees every day - then throw away the cups. Why are so few recycled?

The paper coffee cup is one of modern life's consumer conundrums. It is ubiquitous, yet coveted, pricey yet just about affordable. It confers status in a world where you need to be busy to be important, while telling everyone you had time to wait in line while the beans were ground and the milk was steamed. And now there is one more contradiction to add to the list, because the paper coffee cup, it turns out, is recyclable - yet woefully, overwhelmingly, unrecycled.

A conservative estimate puts the number of paper cups handed out by coffee shops in the UK at 3bn, more than 8m a day. Yet, supposedly, fewer than one in 400 is being recycled.