Those coffee shop cups are not recyclable

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
10,714
Materials can only be put through one recycling process I think.

Materials which can be melted down, purified and remade to spec can be recycled forever e.g. glass, iron.

Natural fibres can't do that, they are at best quality the first time they are processed and every subsequent recycling they are shorter and weaker.


And even if you use recycled materials you can still be combining several materials which do not recycle together and thus ruin future recycling.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
7,693
Location
Stoke on Toast
Radio 4 were talking to the inventor of those recently, seems sensible. The existing ones aren't recyclable as they bond the plastic insert to the cardboard, but even more silly is that most are made out of new material, not recycled cardboard.

I tend not to "take away" from coffee shops anyway, it's mostly overpriced garbage so when I do have something, I'm sitting in so my daughter doesn't spill it down herself quite as frequently!

That's not silly, paper plates and takeaway boxes are made for sanatory reasons with Virgin pulp. But unlike these cups the can be recycled. The issue is that the bond with a plastic is incredibly expensive to reverse. Considering you can buy a Starbucks reusable one and get 25p off Everytime you use it we should where possible try to reuse.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
1 Aug 2004
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12,678
Location
Tyneside
Until about 2005 I was happy enough to drink freeze dried but I chanced upon a good tea spot which sold rather good coffee and quickly gained a taste for filter.

My middle of the road coffee would be Lavazza however I tried a speciality coffee house in Newcastle in 2012 - Pink Lane Coffee - and can't drink Lavazza or similar now.

I now frequent a place called BLK on Chillingham Road in Newcastle. It's the best coffee I have ever tasted.

I would rather go without that drink the likes of Starbucks and Costa. Their coffee is awful.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2010
Posts
6,306
Until about 2005 I was happy enough to drink freeze dried but I chanced upon a good tea spot which sold rather good coffee and quickly gained a taste for filter.

My middle of the road coffee would be Lavazza however I tried a speciality coffee house in Newcastle in 2012 - Pink Lane Coffee - and can't drink Lavazza or similar now.

I now frequent a place called BLK on Chillingham Road in Newcastle. It's the best coffee I have ever tasted.

I would rather go without that drink the likes of Starbucks and Costa. Their coffee is awful.

Cheers, Von. If I ever end up in Geordie realm, I know where to go first for a cuppa now. Here it's a bit rural on the fringes but the town has one coffee place outside the big chains which is quite nice indeed.
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2007
Posts
5,413
Article about the 2.5 billion "paper" cups that go to waste each year on BBC website, because polyethylene added to the card cannot be separated out very easily. It is possible, but only at specialist recycling centres, hence shops can label them recyclable.

How has this practice by Starbucks, Costa etc. been kept so quiet for so long?

Yeah, I'm a middle aged eco hippy, but pretty shocked tbh!

Was I naive, or are others surprised by this?

Having never been in one of these establishments in my entire life less still purchased a cup of coffee from one of them, I can be a little smug and claim I'm not adding to world pollution.

If I have coffee to go it's in a flask. :) Mind you I much prefer a nice cup of tea in a china mug - it must be china or porcelain.
 
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