Little coffee cup recycling occurs in the UK

The U.S. edition of The Conversation, Boston, reports that the estimated 2.5 billion coffee cups disposed of yearly in the U.K. are not being recycled, according to the “War on Waste” study conducted by English celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. 

The majority of consumers are unaware that few facilities are capable of separating coffee cups from their polyethylene linings. While James Cropper Papers in Cumbria has this capability, the facility receives very few cups, only 0.1 percent of which are recycled in the country, according to the article.

The study calls attention to coffee shop chains, such as Starbucks and Costa, and their supposed responses to the problem. The article mentions several possible ways to encourage consumers to carry reusable cups, such as Boston Tea Party’s discount incentives, and funding sustainable building projects, such as Costa’s Eco Pod café design.