Think before you drink – about how to recycle your coffee cup | Susanna Rustin
by Susanna Rustin from Environment | The Guardian on (#179GA)
UK coffee drinkers use around 3bn disposable cups per year - but only one in 1,000 is currently recycled. It's time to tackle this tide of needless waste
Less than 1% of takeaway coffee cups get recycled - or "dramatically less than 1%" in the striking phrase of Peter Goodwin, co-founder of the UK's only paper-coffee-cup recycling business. It takes a specialist company, because the plastic used to laminate the cups has to be removed before the paper is pulped. A bit like the fruit juice cartons that, as any eager recycler will know, are not to be confused with cardboard and are processed alongside paper cups in Stainland, West Yorkshire, at the UK's only carton recycling plant.
Related: Caffeine hit: what happens to Britain's 3bn empty coffee cups?
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