Every year, around one billion disposable coffee cups end up in landfill in separate countries. About 300 million of these, or one third of the national total, are disposed of. The average disposable coffee cup is used for 10–20 minutes.

Disposable coffee cups are single use items. By their nature, they have very short life spans, especially considering the many resources such as energy, water and raw materials used to create and transport them.

Avoid

Consider a re-usable coffee cup campaign in your workplace.

Step 1: to start with a baseline, look in your bins to count how many

coffee cups your workplace throws away daily.

Step 2: talk to staff and seek champions to help set a target and run

your campaign.

Step 3: supply re-usable cups to staff. Tip: provide various options for

staff to choose their preferred colour, style and size.

Step 4: ask staff to pledge to use their cup while having their photo

taken with it. Post these photos to show that everyone is doing it.

Step 5: evaluate and celebrate your successes: do a monthly audit of

disposable cups to ensure the program maintains momentum.

You could also consider:

• Negotiating discounts on hot beverages at local cafés for staff

bringing re-usable cups

• Using weekly email updates about re-usable cup usage with

varied content, including how much waste is being reduced

• A reminder sticker on computers for staff to take their re-usable

cup with them when buying coffee.

Reduce

Consider supplying a plunger or percolator to consume beverages on-site.

Re-use

Retailers can introduce a discount when customers bring their own reusable coffee cup.

Workplaces can introduce an incentive program for staff using reusable coffee cups.

Workplaces could also provide a pool of re-usable cups available for

staff use. This ensures there is a re-usable option when staff or guests

don’t have their own cups.

Recycle

Some disposable coffee cups can be turned into useful items such

as re-usable cups, furniture, car park bumpers and storage crates.

However, because of the range of different materials used to make

them, disposable coffee cups cannot be recycled through the standard

yellow recycling bin.

To recycle your disposable cup, you can organise a recycling

collection. Check with a recycling service provider for the minimum

volume needed.

Alternatively, you can take disposable coffee cups to a local business

that already has a coffee cup collection program in place.

What is a disposable coffee cup made from?

There is a variety of disposable coffee cups available.

Generally, disposable cups have three main components:

1. Cup – Most cups are made from virgin wood fibre.

2. Cup lining – The inside of paperboard cups is coated with a

polymer lining to provide a waterproof barrier and structural

integrity. It is estimated that up to 98% of the disposable coffee cups

used in Australia are lined with Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE).

3. Lids – Cup lids are usually made from High Impact Polystyrene

(HIPS). HIPS carries the plastics identification code #6 and

is recyclable if it is separated and sent to a separate plastic

collection system.

Given the composition of disposable coffee cups, there has been some

confusion regarding their recyclability. Disposable coffee cups can’t go

into a co-mingled recycling bin as existing paper recycling equipment

cannot easily separate paper fibres from the polymer lining.

Cups in the yellow recycling bin are often rejected as contaminated

waste once they reach materials recovery facilities or paper mills, and

subsequently land-filled

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