As global demand for a sustainable solution to paper cup waste continues to rise, Canary Wharf Group is conducting trials for a paper cup made with EarthCoating which contains 43% less plastic than traditional paper cups and be easily pulped into recycled paper using conventional paper recycling equipment.
“As a responsible landlord, we want to raise awareness of alternative technologies that could provide further value to our Estate community. A solution like EarthCoating has potential to demonstrate a closed-loop system where used paper cups could be reprocessed into goods like printing paper, which could then be brought back into our offices” said Lugano Kapembwa, sustainability manager for Canary Wharf Group.
The end of life hierarchy for disposable paper packaging has been clearly identified as Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and so any opportunity to recapture virgin fibres from paper cups for recycling clearly supports the circular economy.
“The first step to getting paper cups recycled is to make paper cups that are easy to process through existing paper recycling equipment” said Todd Gasparik, vice-president of Business Development for Smart Planet Technologies, developers of EarthCoating. “Now that we’ve done this, the recycling experts can extract the value and divert a tremendous amount of waste from landfill.”
