You have a lot to think about in the course of a typical day. The fate of your disposable coffee cup probably ranks low on the list of your daily concerns. Wonder no more: Whether you toss it in a trash can or in a recycling bin for mixed paper, that cup is almost certainly bound for a landfill. Sure, the paper part of the cup could theoretically be recovered and turned into something new. This reasoning is why plenty of well-meaning folks toss their paper cups in recycling containers. But because single-use cups are generally lined with polyethylene (PE) coating, they’ve historically been difficult for paper recycling companies to recycle. I’m glad to report that this may finally be changing.
The Problem with Single-Use Cups
Just as paper straws tend to collapse once saturated, cups made of only paper naturally turn soggy when filled with liquid. Paper alone also isn’t an effective insulator, so plain paper cups aren’t great at keeping hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold.
Decades ago, manufacturers figured out that lining paper cups with plastic coating would solve both these problems. It was an effective solution that created a new problem. In order for paper recycling companies to transform used paper into new paper products, the plastic coating has to be separated from the paper first. Because there hasn’t been a cost-effective way to do that, billions of PE-coated paper cups have ended up in landfills every year.
Some of the companies that have been responsible for generating that waste have also invested in helping to find a solution. Starbucks and McDonald’s are both founding members of the NextGen Consortium, a partnership of various food and beverage companies “that aims to address single-use foodservice packaging waste by advancing the design, commercialization and recovery of packaging alternatives.” In other words, they’ve been working to find more sustainable ways to package and serve food and drinks.
Single-use paper cups are a major focus of the consortium’s efforts because of how ubiquitous they are. By the company’s own account, Starbucks distributes around 6 billion cups per year. The coffee giant has made strides toward sustainability by selling reusable cups and creating a cup lid in 2016 that was more easily recycled than the previous lids. But the vast majority of its paper cups still end up in trash cans.
A Possible Solution for Paper Recycling Companies
Paper recycling companies and manufacturers have been working on finding cost-effective ways to recycle PE-coated paper cups for years. In 2018, Starbucks launched a pilot program to prove that this was possible. The company sent 25 million cups to a Wisconsin paper mill, where they were ground into pulp and a seven-foot corkscrew was used to separate plastic from pulp. The recovered fibers were used to make new Starbucks cups.
The problem, though, was repeating this experiment on a large scale. Just because it was possible for paper recycling companies to convert used cups into new paper products didn’t mean it was feasible in a cost-effective way.
But we’re getting closer. In September 2020, Georgia-Pacific announced that its recycled paper mills in Green Bay, Wisconsin and Muskogee, Oklahoma were accepting PE-coated cups. The manufacturer first did extensive repulping trials and had success with separating paper fiber from plastic coating. The company then worked with its suppliers to encourage nearby municipalities to accept PE-coated cups in curbside collections. Households and businesses located near the two GP mills are currently able to drop their single-use cups in their recycling bins with other mixed paper waste.
After spending five years and $45 million on research and new equipment, Georgia-Pacific is currently transforming cups that were once bound for a landfill into recycled napkins, paper towels and toilet paper. The company is also collaborating with the NextGen Consortium to try making single-use cups that use recyclable or compostable material in place of plastic coating.
These developments are exciting ones for paper recycling companies. Manufacturers can tap into a huge new resource for recovered paper fiber by recycling some of those billions of used cups. And, as more facilities develop the capacity to recycle PE-coated cups, fewer of us will need to feel guilty for enjoying a hot drink on the go.
While we don’t yet have the ability to easily recycle single-use paper cups in Massachusetts, Miller Recycling is here to meet your business’s recycling needs. I welcome any questions you have, about paper recycling or anything else. Contact me today.