Recycling solution addresses paper cup waste issue
Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 09:30:49
The popularity of takeaway tea and coffee in the UK is a major concern for campaigners, since the paper cups in which most hot drinks are served are largely sent to landfill rather than being recycled.
The Independent reports that each year an estimated three billion paper cups are used nationwide, with less than a quarter of a per cent of these disposable receptacles sent for recycling. But now the development of a new technique could make it much easier to harness used cups and turn them back into something useful.
While recycling most paper items is straightforward, dealing with cups is problematic because the fibres are reinforced with plastic in order to allow them to actually hold the liquid contents. So rather than separating these elements, researchers at Brunel University and Imperial College have come up with a solution that, instead, combines them creating a tough multipurpose resin that can be used for a variety of purposes.
Project spokesperson, Dr Edward Kosior, explained that four years of work have gone into addressing this issue. And in fact, it was discovered that it makes sense to combine the high quality paper and low quality plastic in this hybrid resin, since the former helps to reinforce the latter and make up for some of its shortcomings in the process.
The resultant resin can be manipulated and moulded into a variety of shapes, not only meaning that it can be turned back into disposable cups to re-enter the market, but also enabling other items such as table tops, trays and a range of diverse objects to be built.
The NextcupRecycle resin is a potentially important force for good in the UK and project organisers are hoping to have set up a dedicated facility to produce it within the next 12 months.
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