Paper Cups: The World’s Most Boring Disaster - (and why we need to stop pretending they’re 'recyclable)
Paper cups. The most yawn inducing item in the waste industry until you try to dispose of one. Then they suddenly become the caffeine fuelled embodiment of everything wrong with packaging policy, certification schemes, sorting technology and our collective tolerance for greenwash.
We have a waste industry that can compost almost anything, recycle almost everything and turn yesterday’s sandwich box into next week’s puffer jacket, but hand us a paper cup and it quietly toddles off to a waste-to-energy incinerator or landfill because we still haven’t solved the world’s least sexy puzzle - what on earth is this thing actually made of?
The Paper Cup Problem
On the surface, paper cups look simple. In reality, they’re a three headed monster - starch-lined cups, PE-lined cups and PLA-lined cups; to the naked eye? Identical - to AI, NIR and every sorting technology under the sun? Also identical. To operators trying to hit PAS 100, PAS 110, RAM red lists, Simpler Recycling requirements, and everything else? A migraine shaped like a latte.
Why composting facilities reject them
In-vessel composting (IVC) facilities could process certified EN13432 compostable cups but only if they trust what comes over the weighbridge and typically they don’t, and who can blame them? A packaging rich load of food waste is a hand grenade thrown at their PAS100 compliance. If the liner isn’t certified, if the glue isn’t compliant, if the print contains PFAS, if the board is bleached, they fail; the easier option being to reject the whole load and wave it off to incineration.
Why paper mills reject them
Most paper mills will only accept cups made from unbleached board + PE liner; not starch, not PLA, not 'eco-this' and 'bio-that', just boring, reliable, PE-lined cups and even then, they only want them if they arrive sorted, baled, and pure. If not - reject and incinerate
If the machines can’t tell the difference, the system cannot work
We’ve hit the hard limit of technology. AI, near infrared, optical sorting — none of them can reliably detect cup liners. The waste industry is not going to stop and lovingly inspect each cup like it’s a gemstone in the Crown Jewels. As such, if the sorting line says 'not sure', it hits the ejector plate which means the problem isn’t operational, it’s structural.
We need one cup. One material. One fate.
The solution isn’t more logos, more schemes, more marketing fluff, or more 'compostable-ish' fairy tales. The solution is uniformity. A single UK (or EU) cup standard - either a cup designed only for IVC composting (EN13432 certified, PFAS-free, Starch-based liner, guaranteed 100% acceptance at IVC, mandatory markings, Digital tracking (DRS/EPR compatibility) - or, a cup designed only for closed-loop paper recycling (unbleached board, PE-lined, guaranteed for paper mills, full circularity through facilities like James CropperJames Cropper, collected via a separate stream or RVMs). Either path works
A few countries have made attempts, usually because they made one courageous decision;
Japan limits cup formats heavily and uses strict material specifications. Result? Far fewer variants. Simpler flows. Less chaos.
South Korea has RFID bins, PAYT, incredibly strict sorting rules. Cups are either compostable only or fibre/recyclable only and citizens comply because the system gives them no choice.
France banned certain cup formats outright and pushes aggressively for uniformity in food-contact packaging. Their 'pick a lane and stick in it' attitude is something the UK could definitely use a bit more of.
Germany pushed hard on reuse systems, forcing cafés to supply returnable cup options. It doesn’t solve disposables but it dramatically reduces them.
Between these approaches, the international lesson is clear; nations that pick a single material strategy succeed. Nations that let marketing teams pick the materials fail.
As usual, the UK talks endlessly about Simpler Recycling, PFAS reduction, pEPR, DRS, compostable packaging futures, PAS100 & PAS110 and yet we still allow three incompatible cups to circulate without mandatory, machine readable differentiation.
What the UK should do
1. Mandate ONE compostable standard or ONE recyclable standard, Not optional. Not voluntary. Mandatory.
2. Add digital identifiers (QR/DRS-level coding) so sorting lines don’t have to play cup roulette.
3. Ban PFAS and plastic hybrids in cups; if it isn’t PFAS-free, fibre-recyclable or EN13432-compliant, it shouldn’t exist.
4. Set acceptance obligations - IVC must accept Certified Cup A. Paper mills must accept Certified Cup B. Both need support via EPR fees.
5. Penalise non-standard cups. Make them financially unbearable under pEPR. Belgium does this brilliantly; bonus/malus charges to push uniformity.
6. Require retailers to choose one system and label bins accordingly
No mixed messages. No 'we compost or recycle' - Choose a lane or get fined.
Paper cups aren’t a technological challenge. They’re a policy failure. Until governments mandate one cup type (or two clear streams), we’ll keep burning billions of cups designed to be “eco-friendly” but destined, inevitably, to be fuel. More like this (compostables) - link - more like this (IVC) - link - more like this (cups) - link
We have a waste industry that can compost almost anything, recycle almost everything and turn yesterday’s sandwich box into next week’s puffer jacket, but hand us a paper cup and it quietly toddles off to a waste-to-energy incinerator or landfill because we still haven’t solved the world’s least sexy puzzle - what on earth is this thing actually made of?
The Paper Cup Problem
On the surface, paper cups look simple. In reality, they’re a three headed monster - starch-lined cups, PE-lined cups and PLA-lined cups; to the naked eye? Identical - to AI, NIR and every sorting technology under the sun? Also identical. To operators trying to hit PAS 100, PAS 110, RAM red lists, Simpler Recycling requirements, and everything else? A migraine shaped like a latte.
Why composting facilities reject them
In-vessel composting (IVC) facilities could process certified EN13432 compostable cups but only if they trust what comes over the weighbridge and typically they don’t, and who can blame them? A packaging rich load of food waste is a hand grenade thrown at their PAS100 compliance. If the liner isn’t certified, if the glue isn’t compliant, if the print contains PFAS, if the board is bleached, they fail; the easier option being to reject the whole load and wave it off to incineration.
Why paper mills reject them
Most paper mills will only accept cups made from unbleached board + PE liner; not starch, not PLA, not 'eco-this' and 'bio-that', just boring, reliable, PE-lined cups and even then, they only want them if they arrive sorted, baled, and pure. If not - reject and incinerate
If the machines can’t tell the difference, the system cannot work
We’ve hit the hard limit of technology. AI, near infrared, optical sorting — none of them can reliably detect cup liners. The waste industry is not going to stop and lovingly inspect each cup like it’s a gemstone in the Crown Jewels. As such, if the sorting line says 'not sure', it hits the ejector plate which means the problem isn’t operational, it’s structural.
We need one cup. One material. One fate.
The solution isn’t more logos, more schemes, more marketing fluff, or more 'compostable-ish' fairy tales. The solution is uniformity. A single UK (or EU) cup standard - either a cup designed only for IVC composting (EN13432 certified, PFAS-free, Starch-based liner, guaranteed 100% acceptance at IVC, mandatory markings, Digital tracking (DRS/EPR compatibility) - or, a cup designed only for closed-loop paper recycling (unbleached board, PE-lined, guaranteed for paper mills, full circularity through facilities like James CropperJames Cropper, collected via a separate stream or RVMs). Either path works
A few countries have made attempts, usually because they made one courageous decision;
Japan limits cup formats heavily and uses strict material specifications. Result? Far fewer variants. Simpler flows. Less chaos.
South Korea has RFID bins, PAYT, incredibly strict sorting rules. Cups are either compostable only or fibre/recyclable only and citizens comply because the system gives them no choice.
France banned certain cup formats outright and pushes aggressively for uniformity in food-contact packaging. Their 'pick a lane and stick in it' attitude is something the UK could definitely use a bit more of.
Germany pushed hard on reuse systems, forcing cafés to supply returnable cup options. It doesn’t solve disposables but it dramatically reduces them.
Between these approaches, the international lesson is clear; nations that pick a single material strategy succeed. Nations that let marketing teams pick the materials fail.
As usual, the UK talks endlessly about Simpler Recycling, PFAS reduction, pEPR, DRS, compostable packaging futures, PAS100 & PAS110 and yet we still allow three incompatible cups to circulate without mandatory, machine readable differentiation.
What the UK should do
1. Mandate ONE compostable standard or ONE recyclable standard, Not optional. Not voluntary. Mandatory.
2. Add digital identifiers (QR/DRS-level coding) so sorting lines don’t have to play cup roulette.
3. Ban PFAS and plastic hybrids in cups; if it isn’t PFAS-free, fibre-recyclable or EN13432-compliant, it shouldn’t exist.
4. Set acceptance obligations - IVC must accept Certified Cup A. Paper mills must accept Certified Cup B. Both need support via EPR fees.
5. Penalise non-standard cups. Make them financially unbearable under pEPR. Belgium does this brilliantly; bonus/malus charges to push uniformity.
6. Require retailers to choose one system and label bins accordingly
No mixed messages. No 'we compost or recycle' - Choose a lane or get fined.
Paper cups aren’t a technological challenge. They’re a policy failure. Until governments mandate one cup type (or two clear streams), we’ll keep burning billions of cups designed to be “eco-friendly” but destined, inevitably, to be fuel. More like this (compostables) - link - more like this (IVC) - link - more like this (cups) - link
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