Stoke-on-Trent's Trentham Golf Club is the first to switch from cardboard cups to fully recyclable ones, called the Frugal Cup.
Paper cups are bonded on one side to a robust plastic film, making them impossible to join the recycling chains.
However, the Frugal Cup is made entirely from recycled paper, and consists of two elements that separate so both the paperboard and food-grade liner which can be easily recycled during the standard recycling process.
Many 'compostable' cups require specialised industrial equipment to decompose and so throwing it on your home compost heap isn't enough! The Frugal Cup is our solution, as it can be recycled in the standard waste stream. @BBCNews >> https://t.co/tJAmn6GDnC image: alicewalker pic.twitter.com/fQES2WGmeu
— frugalpac (@frugalpac) November 11, 2019
Una Handley, general manager at Trentham GC commented:“We’re delighted to be stocking Frugal Cup and the Frugal Lid.
"Switching to a recyclable coffee cup supplier was vital to us as we’re committed to using sustainable solutions across the business.
"When we started to research the options out there, we were shocked to discover that many of the cups available on the market were, in fact, not easily recycled in the UK.”
In Britain, more than two and a half billion cups are used every year, but less than 0.25% of them are being recycled, the vast majority ending in landfills or the ocean.
And the situation is predicted to get worse: according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Eunomia Research & Consulting, the UK is set to throw away one third more single-use coffee cups than at present, by 2030.
To target this issue, Frugalpac supports a petition to get all UK coffee shops to convert to entirely sustainable cups.
Already 9271 people have signed it.
