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It doesn’t matter if you work in an office, a hospital, you’re a student or anything in-between – getting a takeaway coffee is a daily treat for most of us. The problem is, the paper cups we get from these places are extremely hard to recycle. Which means around 2.5 billion paper cups end up in our landfills every year.
You see, although paper is generally easily recycled, single use coffee cups often have a plastic lining. This means, to recycle them, the paper and the plastic component need to be separated, which is a hard process requiring specialist equipment. Which is why these cups end up in general rubbish instead.
So, to help you do your bit to avoid the overuse of paper cups, here are KwickSweep’s top ways to avoid these cups:
1: Make Your Coffee at Home
If you’re looking to reduce your non-recyclable waste and save yourself some money at the same time, making your coffee at home can help you do both. As, let’s face it, while we know we can a filter coffee cheap, most of us are spending nearer to £5 on a fancy latte or flat white.
Just be aware, if your coffee machine uses pods, these need to be sent away in order to be recycled. So, if you aren’t doing this, then you’re being no better than you were before using the takeaway cups.
2: Invest in a Reusable Cup
These days, every coffee shop will happily put your drink into a reusable cup. Indeed, most will even give you a discount on the price because you’re using a reusable cup. This helps keep their paper cup consumption down.
Most shops even sell reusable cups, which means if you’re a fan of a particular place, you can still have that logo on your cup. Or, get a cup that shows off your favourite band, TV show or anything else you like.
3: Get Your Coffee from a Shop Using Recyclable Cups
While, at the moment, most mainstream coffee shops don’t use compostable cups. You will find that a few independent shops will sell takeaway cups that are fully recyclable, as you just put them into a compost bin afterwards. Which leaves you free to enjoy that delicious coffee guilt-free!
4: Get Your Paper Cups Recycled
While as an individual it can be hard to get your regular paper takeaway cups recycled, you can work together with your workplace to get them recycled. Try to get a bin purely for takeaway cups in your office and then send them away to a specialised recycler who can get them recycled. You’ll need to get your employer to agree to this first though.
If you’d like your office to recycle more, especially when it comes to old furniture or equipment, get in touch with KwikSweep and we can help advise you we can pick up this office equipment and get them recycled.