I think your idea of charging for disposable cups at food courts is really smart. I am sure food chains and restaurants would really like if they didn’t need to supply so many disposable cups too. Just image if everyone brought their own coffee cup to Dunkin Donuts, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks or their own soda drink cup to McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. The world would be keeping millions upon millions of Styrofoam, paper, and plastic cups out of landfills.

Thanks for sharing your keen insight.

-R.G.

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad that the blog is providing helpful information for you. -R.G.

Thanks for your comment. The recycling of PE and PLA coated paper cups goes beyond proper sorting. In the case of PE-coated cups, most paper mills do not want to handle fibers coated with plastic. One of the challenges for the few mills that do take on the recycling of plastic coated cups is that there is no “standard” for the plastic coating and the paper mills end up getting paper cups coated with several types of plastics. These plastics have different melting points which not only make the recycling process more complex but often lower paper recovery rates. In theory, recycling rates for PE-coated cups could be increased through coating standardization and sufficient collection. By standardizing the coating, efficient reclaimation techniques could be developed. Providing adequate supply of standardized plastic coated cups to recycling facilities would make the effort economically feasible. PLA-coated cups were developed to be compostable; so the cups must find their way to an industrial compost facility. I agree that proper sorting would increase the composting percentage of PLA-coated cups. Identifying PLA-coated cups from other coated cups is possible by melting point, however, that is not always feasible on a continuous, manual sort line. Therefore, one of the best markets for PLA-coated cups are food service operations that also have designated industrial compost facilities. University campuses and other large institutions can effectively create a closed loop system that guards against contamination and helps to ensure an on-going supply source. It seems that sorting, coating standardization, process development, and adequated on-going supply are all factors to be considered. -R.G.

Robert Daniel