With more than 500 billion single-use plastic and paper coffee cups produced worldwide annually, finding a way to make them recyclable is a high priority for sustainably-minded packaging manufacturers. While most paper cups are recyclable, the takeaway lids usually aren’t since they’re still made from plastic.
Now, in Hong Kong, a company has developed The Good Cup, a fully sustainable coffee cup with an integrated lid made entirely from renewable materials like sugarcane waste, making it both fully recyclable and compostable.
The sustainable takeaway cup also packs flat, saving storage space and energy during transport, and is designed so that the top flap is built into the cup itself, folding and locking into place when closed to create a “lid”.
Plastic lids are often made of polypropylene or polystyrene – petroleum-based plastics that are hard to recycle.
Making these types of plastic lids usable again is expensive and costs more than manufacturing new ones. Because of this, companies generally just produce more plastic lids instead of recycling old ones, fuelling the vicious cycle of waste.
ChoosePlanetA, the parent company of the fully sustainable coffee cup, says the material and design of manufacturing the sustainable cups are compatible with existing machinery built to create conventional paper cups.
Cyril Drouet, co-founder and MD at ChoosePlanetA, explained: “The impact of the Good Cup’s use is far-reaching and varied,” said Cyril Drouet, co-founder and managing director, ChoosePlanetA.
“From creating significant savings at the point of production and increasing brand awareness to its most crucial and necessary impact – helping to alleviate the environmental crisis by removing plastic, one lid at a time.”
