{"id":17970,"date":"2022-12-06T10:08:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T10:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/?p=17970"},"modified":"2022-12-06T10:08:12","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T10:08:12","slug":"storm-in-a-coffee-cup-how-the-disposable-cup-problem-is-reaching-boiling-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/2022\/12\/storm-in-a-coffee-cup-how-the-disposable-cup-problem-is-reaching-boiling-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm in a Coffee Cup: How the Disposable Cup Problem is Reaching Boiling Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the cold weather sets in and people reach for a hot drink, academics from the\u00a0Kent Business School<\/a>\u00a0warn how disposable coffee cup waste is still placing a huge strain on the environment.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the UK, 2.5 billion coffee cups are used and discarded annually \u2013 that\u2019s the equivalent of the number of people attending Winter Wonderland over 1,000 years. Only 0.25 percent of these cups, or less than 1 in 400, are recycled.<\/p>\n

A study by the Kent Business School has found the region faces a \u2018threefold\u2019 challenge to tackling coffee cup waste, including a lack of consumer awareness about disposal, lack of infrastructure and an inability to roll out initiatives to boost sustainable options. The study, funded by the Low Carbon Kent team of Kent County Council (KCC) was carried out by\u00a0Dr Preetam Basu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Professor Thanos Papadopoulos<\/a>. It explored the scale of the disposable coffee cup problem in Kent.<\/p>\n

The team found a lack of consumer awareness about \u201cwhy\u201d and \u201chow\u201d these coffee cups should be disposed and a lack of infrastructure to tackle the issue. They also found that initiatives tried in the past, like giving out rewards for reusable cups have been associated with \u2018low awareness and uptake\u2019.<\/p>\n

Professor Thanos Papadopoulos<\/a>\u00a0says: \u2018While more people are aware of and actively engaged in recycling, when it comes to coffee cups, we are still in hot water. While initiatives like giving out rewards for reusable cups were touted as a solution to the problem, they\u2019ve not proved to be the silver bullet needed.<\/p>\n

\u2018The findings of the study point to a solution that requires a broader collaboration between the local authority (city councils), coffee selling outlets in Kent, a sustainable coffee cup manufacturer and a paper waste collection company. The country needs to develop a paper cup that can be recycled curb side, a dedicated cup collection infrastructure and a public coffee cup recycling campaign.<\/p>\n

\u2018People also need more clarity about \u201cwhy\u201d and \u201chow\u201d coffee cups should be disposed of, as well as better infrastructure for recycling them. At a local level a broader collaboration between the local authority (city councils), coffee selling outlets, a sustainable coffee cup manufacturer and a paper waste collection company is needed. Developing a paper cup that can be recycled curb side, a dedicated cup collection infrastructure and a public coffee cup recycling campaign would help people enjoy a hot drink on the go, without the eco-guilt.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The researchers found that there was a lack of public recycling bins in high streets throughout Kent alongside an issue with PLA, the main substance used in compostable coffee cups which is generally only considered suitable for commercial composting. The outlets they questioned also highlighted a lack of suitable waste collection services for such cups.<\/p>\n

Dr Preetam Basu<\/a>\u00a0concludes: \u2018The annual consumption of disposable coffee cups in Kent, utilising the UK-wide average per person consumption and Kent population data is 68,634,000.\u00a0 It is estimated that only 0.25% (one in four hundred) of disposable coffee cups are actually recycled in the UK. This suggests that only 171,585 disposable cups make it into recycling each year with the rest \u2013 over 68 million \u2013 ending up in landfill.\u2019<\/p>\n

Professor Thanos Papadopoulos is Professor of Thanos Papadopoulos is Professor of Management (Operations Management\/Information Systems) and Director of the Technology, Innovation Management, and Enterprise (TIME) <\/i>Research Centre at Kent Business School.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Preetam Basu\u00a0is Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at Kent Business School. He is a member of the Department of Analytics, Operations & Systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the cold weather sets in and people reach for a hot drink, academics from the\u00a0Kent Business School\u00a0warn how disposable coffee cup waste is still … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74553,"featured_media":17971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17976,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17970\/revisions\/17976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kbs-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}