Saving the world
one cup at a time
As takeaway culture becomes more entrenched in our culture, single-use throwaway coffee cups are on the rise.
Until 2013 the University of Canterbury (UC), and others, were able to recycle these cups and their plastic lids. However, since then a number of items that were previously taken for recycling have no longer been accepted, including these cups and lids. Instead we were asked to dispose of these items direct to landfill.
Coffee cups are just the tip of the rubbish iceberg. All forms of single-use food packaging are now being rejected for recycling. So we need to develop an alternative system to deal with the problem. There are three options. Firstly, we can do as requested and send these items to landfill. This simple option is not desirable. It is a linear resource-use process that makes no effort to close the resource loop that is creating huge problems in Canterbury, in New Zealand and worldwide.
We also need to recognise that sending coffee cups to landfill is the most expensive waste-disposal option available to us.
The second option is to compost them. This option has great sustainability outcomes, ensuring that the resources used in the manufacture of the product are returned safely to the Earth.
There are two difficulties to contend with, though. The first is that most waste-services providers will not accept coffee cups for composting, regardless of whether or not they are certified as ‘‘compostable’’. This is because their mechanical systems are not actually geared to compost these materials.
The second difficulty is that there are many kinds of takeaway coffee cups. Most have a plastic or wax lining that is not desirable in compost. The third option is to ban them. Many municipalities and private businesses have started banning single-use coffee cups. Instead they encourage people to either drink their coffees in the cafe or else bring their own cup. This option requires both policy development and sometimes new equipment; many cafes nowadays don’t even have space for a dishwasher, so they can’t offer crockery.
At the University of Canterbury, the sustainability office has introduced a two-year pilot to test a separate collection system for takeaway coffee cups and to test them in a mechanical composting system owned by an external provider.
Since there is no leadership from the waste companies in dealing with this growing problem, and since banning takeaway cups is not currently considered an option, we are looking at an alternative system.
Our first priority is to actually create that system, find out what the sorting requirements are and whether the system could be easily operated.
So far, we have diverted more than 30,000 cups from landfill with our ‘‘blue bin’’ system.
We are also testing how easily our cups will compost – using the current system we have not found any issues with this. Once we can confirm that the process works, we will try to influence cafes on campus to only sell certified compostable cups, where there’s stricter control about the materials used in their manufacture.
We could also expand the service to include other forms of single-use food packaging, such as burger boxes, juice cups and sushi containers.
So what can we all do to help out?
We need to shift from single-use food packaging and realise that when you throw something away, there is no actual ‘‘away’’.
Our planet is choking under this waste burden and we have to get real about this. For a start, single-use coffee cups should be banned.
But if your organisation cannot ban them, then consider purchasing a certified compostable version and find a simple way to compost them on site.
A worm farm would be ideal.
Coffee cups are just the tip of the rubbish iceberg.