Starbucks Is Testing 100% Recyclable Coffee Cups

Every time you buy yourself a cup of Starbucks coffee, do you stop to wonder where the coffee cup ends up when you’re done with your beverage? They collect in a landfill, polluting the soil and destroying the environment. And while you might think that it’ll be okay because it’s made from paper, these cups are laminated with plastic, which makes it difficult to recycle.

This is where the the Frugalpac Cup comes in. Invented by entreprenuer and engineer Martin Myerscough, the cup aims to reduce the impact of the 2.5 billion paper coffee cups used in the UK each year. The Frugalpac Cup launched yesterday and has a thin film liner that is designed to separate easily from the paper in the recycling process. Which produces 100% paper, which can then be easily recycled, reports The Guardian.

A Starbucks spokesman said: “We are very interested in finding out more about the Frugalpac cup and we will be testing it to see if it meets our standards for safety and quality, with a view to trialling its recyclability.”

In a survey done earlier this year, it was discovered that only 1 in 400 cups from UK coffee chains are actually recycled. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a British chef and environmental activist, started “Paper Cup Recycling and Recovery Group” and dozens of chains like Starbucks and McDonald’s have signed up to “a pledge to significantly increase paper cup recycling rates by 2020.”

And Fearnley-Whittingstall’s next “War on Waste” documentary will feature these cups as he talks about why coffee shops don’t use better materials for their cups and make them recyclable. And now Starbucks, in the UK especially, will be trying these cups in some of their branches to see how it works out and then possibly expand even further.