When our cups runneth over
We guzzle our way through 295 million cups of takeaway coffee a year. Most of the cups end up in landfill. What can we do to fix the issue? reporter Leith Huffadine investigates.
So many solutions for dealing with takeaway coffee cups look at the end-of-life options – recycling or composting. But WasteMINZ chief executive Paul Evans says we first need to look at waste reduction – we need to use fewer disposable containers.
‘‘It’s a little bit like the whole plastic bag debate,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve been able to buy reusable bags for years. And a bunch of people do that . . . but actually, a lot of us, we might forget, we don’t build that habit or a lot of people don’t care.’’
Evans said there needed to be options for dealing with used cups.
Kim Renshaw, from Beyond the Bin, said solutions weren’t ‘‘one-size-fits-all’’ – they had to be tailored to each region.
Solutions are happening, ‘‘but it’s piecemeal’’.
The key – whether recycling or composting – was having infrastructure to collect the cups and deal with them.
A seemingly simple solution, but often not viable owing to economies of scale – some areas just don’t have enough people to justify the service.
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said: ‘‘A solution will require input from both the packaging industry who are developing and producing coffee cups, and the composting/recycling industry who have the expertise to develop end-of-life solutions. Officials are working with these groups to develop a plan for dealing with coffee cups and other packaging.’’
The lack of comprehensive, reliable data on the amount of waste New Zealand generated was a recognised problem, she said.
‘‘It’s something the new Government is working to fix, but it will take time,’’ Sage said.
‘‘The National Waste Data Framework provides a series of protocols for gathering consistent data but councils are only just starting to implement it and it only applies to waste going to levied sites. We need a national system for gathering and sharing waste data and we will establish that.’’
Recycling options
There is no recycling system for coffee cups in New Zealand.
‘‘Right now, if someone had a great idea about how to recycle coffee cups, that would be a private initiative. They would have to go and figure out a way to make it commercially viable and make it happen, which is probably why a lot of things have not gone forward,’’ Renshaw said.
‘‘You can turn around and say council should do it and I guess . . . you have to ask yourself if you want things to be done at great cost to you, the ratepayer, if you want council to do it.
‘‘So in a way, privatisation is quite good sometimes because it means people can make money out of doing recycling.’’
Renshaw said recycling would continue to happen more quickly, now China had closed its doors to mixed plastics. That would lead to Government support and investment in private industry to develop solutions.
‘‘I think we will get a nice thriving recycling industry."
The Packaging Forum’s Lyn Mayes said solutions were being worked on.
‘‘DetPak have designed a cup which actually can be recycled. So we are now seeing both innovation in the design of the cup itself . . . and we are also seeing innovation in the facilities.’’
Detpak general manager Daniel Cross said the company’s ‘‘RecycleMe’’ products were due for commercial release next month.
Mayes expected recycling cups would eventually be replaced by composting cups.
Composting practices
There are only 11 facilities in the country capable of taking compostable coffee cups, a nationwide study found.
‘‘Obviously, that means some parts of the country are covered and some parts aren’t,’’ Renshaw said.
‘‘But you still need a collection system that will get them there . . . there is a lot of work that will have to get done to get us composting in most towns.’’
The Packaging Forum is setting up a technical group that is working with organisations like Scion to develop a New Zealand standard for compostable packaging. That will involve compost facilities to make sure the certification meets the needs of the compost industry.
Biopak, a member of the forum, has launched a trial collection service for compostable cups in Auckland.
Innocent Packaging was working with We Compost and Envirofert to take the cups and lids in Auckland and with Kai to Compost in Wellington. It was also looking at options for Napier and Kaiko¯ ura, according to Idealog.
Z Energy – which sells 4.5 million takeaway coffees a year – uses compostable cups and even has its own collection points at stations.
The Public Place Recycling Scheme’s coffee cup project is working with other stakeholders to deliver a NZ compostable packaging standard for coffee cups.
A major initiative by the Packaging Forum is certification for cups – including a logo – that will identify cups as commercially or potentially home compostable.
Standardising cups
Evans said he was interested in a standardised coffee cup.
‘‘Right now, you have 50 different kinds of cups where you might have 50 different solutions.’’
Similar standards had been developed overseas, Evans said. For example, bottle buy-back schemes in Sweden required all bottles to be of a standard so they could be collected and recycled.
He said standards could be achieved under the Waste Minimisation Act.
‘‘But at the same time, you do want to develop that culture shift because, ultimately, they are still disposable items and recycling is good but it is less good than not creating the waste in the first place.
‘‘Last but not least, I think we do need to think really firmly about our longterm infrastructure.’’
Facilities needed to be designed with composting in mind. The Packaging Forum has a range of initiatives set up to tackle the problem – and the wider issue of litter.
It has partnered with Be a Tidy Kiwi on a litter reduction campaign.
The forum has a coffee cup working group including producers of both compostable cups and cups with plastic lining, as well as brands that sell coffee and the waste management industry.
Mayes said there was a lot of momentum behind the push for solutions by the industry.
‘‘With consumer support, we can solve the coffee cup conundrum.’’
Waste minimisation effort
Sage said the Government was committed to reducing waste, including coffee cups.
‘‘We will continue to work with the packaging and waste management industries to develop long-term solutions for these products. The environmental impacts of end of life e-waste and tyres mean they are my current priorities for improved product stewardship regimes where manufacturers, retailers and users take more responsibility for these products at the end of their life.
‘‘Compostable coffee cups can be composted through commercial facilities as part of food or green waste composting. I’d encourage the cup manufacturers to work directly with compost plant operators to get the best results, more cafes to phase out disposable cups and encourage keep cups for takeaway coffees.
‘‘Work being done on compostable cups is an example of product stewardship – seeking to manage a product’s environmental impacts throughout its life cycle.’’ Any solutions would require ‘‘a number of investments’’.
‘‘Some of these investments may be a part of a wider waste minimisation effort such as new or expanded compost facilities. At present, I do not know the cost of providing a solution for takeaway coffee cups.’’
❚ This is part four of a five-part series on the issue of takeaway coffee cups.