High street coffee chains trial a recyclable cup: New bioplastic mug can be recycled with paper and decompose in three months

  • The cup can be recycled and will break down in three months on a compost heap
  • It has been described by the company behind it as a 'world first' 
  • Coffee shops in the UK pocket more than £3.4billion in revenue per year 
  • But around 5,000 coffee cups are discarded every minute in the UK  

A fully compostable and recyclable coffee cup is to be trialled by major high street chains.

Made with a revolutionary type of bioplastic, the cup can be recycled with paper and will break down within three months on a compost heap.

Coffee chains have come under intense criticism after it was revealed around 5,000 coffee cups are discarded every minute in the UK, with only one per cent of them recycled.

Over 5,000 coffee cups are thrown away every minute and they cannot be recycled

The Daily Mail has highlighted how over 5,000 coffee cups are thrown away every minute

The Daily Mail’s Curb The Cups campaign has highlighted how most disposable cups cannot be recycled because they have a thin plastic coating.

Biome Bioplastics, the company behind the new cup, described it as a ‘world first’. It is made from paper on the outside and bioplastic inside.

It can withstand heat better than other types of bioplastic because it uses eucalyptus.

The cups are comprised of plant starches and cellulose, and can turn ‘into water and carbon dioxide within three months’.

Because it is wood-based, the inventors also claim that the whole thing can be recycled with paper.

Coffee shops have continued to soar in popularity, with a 10 per cent increase in sales last year, taking their revenues to £3.4billion per year.

Around £2.5billion coffee cups are tossed away each year but most can’t be recycled because the inner plastic lining cannot be separated from the cardboard paper.

Paul Mines, chief executive of Biome Bioplastics, said: ‘For such a simple product, disposing of a single coffee cup is a very complex problem.

Most coffee cups can't be recycled because the inner plastic lining cannot be separated from the cardboard paper 

Most coffee cups can't be recycled because the inner plastic lining cannot be separated from the cardboard paper 

‘Coffee drinkers are acting in good faith when they see recycling logos on their takeaway coffees but most cups are lined with oil-based plastic and the lids made of polystyrene, making recycling impossible, even when placed in the right bin.’

Among the initiatives suggested by the Government in their drive to cut down the waste is putting a warning label on disposable cups telling people they take up to 30 years to degrade.

Earlier this month, Environment Secretary Angela Leadsom said she would consider a scheme to mark cups with a ‘decomposition date’ after research found doing this could lead to a five per cent cut in waste.

However, scientists remain sceptical about how viable bioplastics can be for recycling.

In order to break down, they need to be in contact with soil and water and to be subjected to temperatures of 50-60C (122-140F). This means they wouldn’t be able to break down in landfill or sea water.

Environment Secretary Angela Leadsom said she would consider a scheme to mark coffee cups with a ‘decomposition date’

Environment Secretary Angela Leadsom said she would consider a scheme to mark coffee cups with a ‘decomposition date’

Dr Arturo Castillo, a research fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said: ‘Typically the conditions that you have in composting tanks are not what you have in the sea, which means really that having biodegradable plastics that are meant to be composted are not really going to be the main solution.

‘There’s no silver bullet to solve this problem and really what we need to do is to try to stop the waste from getting into the ocean in the first place.’

Research fellow Dr Thomas Farmer told Sky News: ‘We’re trying to think about using a sustainable feedstock which will always be there for future generations to use, unlike oil...

‘I think it’s going to eventually allow us to produce plastics with significantly reduced impact on the environment.’

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.