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Eco-friendly disposable cups - possible???


Squaredy
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I have a coffee machine at my site for use of visitors and customers.  I used to buy paper cups for it, thinking they were environmentally friendly, but of course we now know they are nothing of the sort due to the plastic liner.

 

For practical reasons it is not really feasible to provide china cups as this would get so messy.  So are there any eco friendly disposable cups?

 

I thought I had found some like this:

 

WWW.NISBETS.CO.UK

Fiesta Green Compostable Hot Cups Single Wall 340ml / 12oz x 50 (ds059) & more from our Fiesta Green range at Nisbets.co.uk. Next day delivery on thousands of catering...

 

But it turns out that the plastic substitute (PLA) is only compostible in commercial composters.  I need something we can compost here on site at ambient temperatures.  Also if it is thrown out of a car window (I hope none of my customers would do that but you never know) it needs to naturally biodegrade within months not years.  

 

I have found nothing - anyone help?

 

 

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3 hours ago, sandspider said:

They have disposable cups at Westonbirt, made of some sort of vegetable polymer, which apparently will compost in normal compost bins...

I would be interested to learn more, but I suspect the vegetable polymer is PLA which takes years to break down unless it has exactly the right conditions.  Only when subjected to a highly specialised process and heated to 140 degrees centigrade will PLA biodegrade. 

 

So in reality they will all end up either incinerated or in landfill just like traditional paper/plastic cups.

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Squaredy My mate owns and runs Transcend Packaging who are the makers of the new recyclable straws for mcdonalds,Lee also owns Fencing & Decking who have a few sites around south wales and he buys a fair bit of timber from me,Spoke with him last week and i think they are developing a new range of cups to,

Bit more info below 

Transcend Packaging

 

Ebbw Vale firm Transcend Packaging lands McDonald's deal ...

 

Edited by topchippyles
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13 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I would be interested to learn more, but I suspect the vegetable polymer is PLA which takes years to break down unless it has exactly the right conditions.  Only when subjected to a highly specialised process and heated to 140 degrees centigrade will PLA biodegrade. 

 

So in reality they will all end up either incinerated or in landfill just like traditional paper/plastic cups.

As I remember, they made a thing out of their cups being compostable in normal compost, not requiring the high temps of industrial set ups. I don't have the details though, so don't quote me on that...

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3 minutes ago, sandspider said:

As I remember, they made a thing out of their cups being compostable in normal compost, not requiring the high temps of industrial set ups. I don't have the details though, so don't quote me on that...

I will look into it.  Not sure how, but then again I am heading that way tomorrow....maybe I will have to pop in and report back.

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47 minutes ago, spandit said:

I'd bet polystyrene cups are easier to recycle and use less energy to manufacture in the first place.

This is one of the those counter intuitive things that may well be the case. The way there is far less carbon involved in making a plastic  bag than a paper one. 

 

I go to a cafe that uses compostable cups and have messaged them to find out what brand they use but they may well be the PLA ones

 

Any reason you cant sent them to the council recycling where they would get hot enough to break down?

 

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