Printed Cups Made From The Plastic We Recycle At Home
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We think this advice is as good today as it has always been.
At CupComs, we advocate cups and glasses that can be re-used as many times as possible. But reusable cups can increase waste and cost when there are no facilities to collect, wash and store them. In these situations, we suggest that easily-recycled cups are a better choice. Even better... cups that are made from recycled plastic in the first place.
Recycling is always the best outcome for cups that have a limited life, and it is easy to explain why: Litter pollutes, land-fill permanently removes it from use, and incineration destroys the raw material. Conversely, recycling keeps preserves energy, keeps raw materials in use, and reduces our dependence on limited resources.
But what if nobody buys recycled products?
With no demand, the recycled material has no value and the plastic we so diligently recycle gets incinerated - the circle is broken. In fact, we would go as far as to say that using recycled products is just as important as recycling them.
What gets recycled?
While it is technically possible to recycle anything, in reality it is only economically viable to make new things from uncontaminated source material. This means clear, uncoloured plastic of one type. PET is the most commonly recycled plastic in the UK and EU. Nearly all plastic bottles are made from PET, as well as fruit punnets and many other types of clear food packaging. Good, clean recycled PET costs a little more than virgin PET so the proportion of recycled-to-virgin material can vary. Once it contains some recycled PET it is known as rPET. It is worth asking your supplier what percentage of recycled material a product contains. At CupComs, we are pleased to be able to offer PET cups that contain 100% recycled PET.
The issue of trust
The market is flooded by green-coloured marketing materials with talk of 'new' and 'miracle' materials that vanish after use, as if by magic. It can be difficult to see past the tidal wave of greenwash and phoney 'certifications' but in nearly every case you will find that the cup is made from ordinary plastic with and additive that makes it break down into unrecoverable pollution. Over time, the material gets banned but like wack-a-mole, the polluters come up with a new variation enabling them to stay one step ahead of legislation.
Recycled products are the opposite of this. They take what would otherwise be waste and enable its re-use.
So why do we recommend recycled cups?
1. Using recycled products is sustainable: They are made from the materials we recycle at home and using them drives demand for more recycling.
2. Recycling is easy to understand, easy to explain, easy to do, and easy to trust.
3. Recycled cups have small foot print: they use less water, less energy and no methane or CO2.
4. Recycled cups are easy to recycle again, reducing waste even further, and driving the circular economy.
5. Recycled cups are easy to trust. They do not ‘biodegrade’ into microplastics or unwelcome residue.
Please take a look at our range of recycled cups here.