The paper bales were EU compliant reCUP materials provided by CupPrint, the Irish paper cup manufacturer. Lenzing now plans to purchase reCUP materials as they become available in the UK and also begin a pilot production using post-consumer coffee cups made with EarthCoating.
Traditionally, paper cups have been coated on the interior with polyethylene or other plastics, to form them and hold the liquid contents. However, this has made paper cups difficult to recycle in standard paper recycling processes. Therefore, paper cups are usually separated and sorted for landfill at standard recycling facilities in the UK and elsewhere.
Smart Planet CEO Will Lorenzi says: “This is a significant step forward for EarthCoating and reCUP as it paves the way for collection and reprocessing in the regular paper and card recycling streams.”
The reCUP paper cup utilises EarthCoating as its interior coating, a mineralized resin coating engineered to be fully repulpable and processable in traditional paper recycling processes and equipment. This innovation can unlock the value in recycling paper cups for the recycling industry to potentially avert the practice of paper cups being directed to landfill. The reCUP is available in commercial quantities for immediate orders in the UK, Europe and in the US. For more information, visit the reCUP.earth website.
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