From: Packaging News

Simply Cups is to recover and recycle Smart Planet Technologies’ ‘reCUP’ hot beverage paper cup that can be recycled at traditional paper mills.

Considered the UK’s only workable cup recycling scheme, Simply Cups is working with the California-based company which produces paper cups featuring inside coating blended with minerals, so its plastic content is reduced by up to 50%, meaning it is compatible with the existing recycling equipment used at UK paper mills.

The ‘reCUP’ is expected to be sold at a cost comparable with traditional paper cups, through 4 Aces in the UK – a founding member of the Simply Cups scheme.
Will Lorenzi, president of Smart Planet Technologies (SPT), said the first step in resolving the lack of paper cup recycling is to give the recycling industry a paper cup “worth recycling”.

“Once the coating is no longer an obstacle to recycling, a paper cup becomes a valuable material to recycle. We have substantiated that our cup material can be processed through standard paper mill recycling infrastructure and our relationship with Simply Cups will provide assurance to businesses and consumers that the reCUP will meet its ‘recyclable’ commitment.”

Peter Goodwin, co-founder of Simply Cups, said: “SPT has rightly recognised that, for its products to be recycled, they first need to be collected separately at source and then forwarded to a paper reprocessing plant. As the only organisation in the UK operating this service, Simply Cups was the obvious choice.”

The Simply Cups scheme will also provide a dedicated collection service for the cup – either by bag or by bale – which will then be routed to paper mills.