From: Packaging News

Australian paper and cardboard packaging company Detpak has entered the UK market with its coffee cups collection service.

Due for launch soon at Taylor St Barista’s roaster coffee shops, the RecycleMe cups feature Californian-based Smart Planet Technology’s EarthCoating, which claims to use 43% less plastic than traditional UK paper cups and insists they can be processed into recycled paper products using conventional paper recycling equipment.

The RecycleMe recycling collection system is designed to close the loop for the industry and verifies collected paper cups will be counted and recycled into high quality paper products.

The system has been signed up by Taylor St Barista’s roaster coffee shops.

Detpak is working with commercial recycling firm Shredall to collect, sort and recycle the cups as part of an existing national collection system in the UK.

Shredall is also providing a collection service and recycling commitment for RecycleMe coffee cup lids.

Kristin Camery, Detpak’s product marketing manager, said: “Our RecycleMe collection system is a total end to end solution, turning takeaway cups into recycled paper products, and contributing to positive global environmental change.”

Nik Williams, Shredall sales director, said: “Shredall currently has 13,000 collection points around the UK and will support the establishment of additional collection stations for RecycleMe cups.”

Andrew Tolley, co-founder / head of coffee, Taylor St Baristas, said the opportunity to put a more environmentally friendly cup into the hands of customers was crucial.

“We have been looking at more sustainable options for single-use cups since we opened in 2006. This is the first truly sustainable option. The paper is sourced from sustainable managed forests, after use the cups are recycled by a service provider committed to recycling the paper up to 7 times.”

He insisted that most compostible cups are never composted, or they break down to methane and result in microplastics, and biodegradable cups break down to methane and are not readily available; he also said standard PE cups are recyclable but yield low quality fibre ‘and most plants are unwilling to take them because they cannot process the cups efficiently’.

“So even when they are recycled – about 0.5% of the 2.5 billion used cups in the UK annually, they are only recycled once. It has been thoroughly tried and tested in Australia where recycling and environmental programs are more effective than in the UK.
It is shocking how little of what we put out for recycling, actually gets recycled in the UK.”