According to Byron Shire Council’s recycling guidelines, every single takeaway coffee cup and lid, regardless of the so-called ‘recycling’ symbols placed on them, should be placed into the red-bin stream to go into landfill at Lismore.
However, local coffee maker Zentveld’s is now using a 100% plastic-free paper cup that does not contain any linings of plastics, bioplastics (PLA) or waxes, and is, according to Bec Zentveld, recyclable ‘like paper or cardboard – you just flatten it, and put it in either the green or yellow bin. It is being tested, but it should be compostable in commercial compost within 120 days’.
The cup, made by MPM-Castaway, uses water-based inks and what they call a ‘water-based dispersion coating’ so it does not need to have a plastic lining removed for recycling. Tests according to the EN 13432 composting certificate are currently in progress.
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