Out of the Loop: Are Coffee Cups Recyclable?
Welcome to Out Of The Loop!
This week, we want to try to answer an age old question: can I recycle disposable coffee cups?
The intuitive answer is ‘yes’ – they’re made from paper, after all. However, most coffee cups are lined with a layer of waterproofing polyethylene – good for preventing your latté from soaking through to your hand, but bad for recycling. Polyethylene is the most commonly used form of plastic, and the reason why your typical coffee cup takes around 30 years to decompose.
While the paper itself is recyclable, most material collection facilities (MCFs) can't separate it from the polyethylene fibres, rendering it unrecyclable. This makes the 2.7 million coffee cups thrown out every day a real headache for MCFs around Australia.
With that said, however, the hard plastic lids on coffee cups are pretty much universally recyclable. So next time you finish enjoying your coffee, pop the lid into the recycle bin before throwing the cup in general waste. Or – better yet – use a reusable cup!
By Daniel Bil
Brand/IT Officer, AMSA Global Health 2019
[email protected]
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AMSA Global Health
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