Do you recycle?

Once upon a time, all our rubbish was tipped into landfill, but things are a lot more sophisticated and environmentally friendly than in the past, these days.

There are many options to recycle food waste, categories of material (glass, plastic, paper) on a domestic level and industry is paying more attention to these issues than in the past.

There has been a news story in the coffee industry of late which indicates that a brand new idea may have a significant impact on the recycling of disposable coffee cups.

Given the love affair that we have with coffee, hazard a guess at how many coffee cups go to landfill in the UK?

Would you be surprised to hear that 2.5 billion is the answer to this question?

Shocking, no?

And James Cropper, a Cumbria-based recycler, has come up with a solution to this wasteful dilemma.

So, what is the deal?

The recycling company has developed a way of separating the plastic section of a part-plastic, part-paper, disposable coffee cup.

This plastic element has previously prevented the traditional coffee cup from being used for recycling.

Once out the way, the paper part of the disposable cup can be created into ‘luxury papers and packaging material.’

It has taken the company four years to develop the process of skimming off the polyethylene coating from the cups.