Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘War on Paper Cups’ campaign swiftly followed by Defra Minister Rory Stewart’s announcement that coffee cups ’seem to be a very good thing to look at next’ has brought paper cup recyclability sharply into focus. The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) welcomes the raising of this issue by Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall as while great strides have been made to make paper cups recyclable, a lack of consistent infrastructure means the volume being recycled falls a long way short of what should be possible and UK businesses could be missing out on 60 000 tonnes of very quality recycled paper and board annually. It is the sincere hope of the FPA that current debate will act as a catalyst to achieve swift progress and new recycling schemes that are easy to implement across the supply chain.
However the FPA challenges a number of assertions made this week:
1. That disposable paper cups are not recycled
2. That retailers are...