{"id":576,"date":"2022-12-08T16:53:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T16:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/?p=576"},"modified":"2024-09-04T09:33:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T08:33:25","slug":"576","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/2022\/12\/08\/576\/","title":{"rendered":"Realising the disposable cup problem in Kent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Challenge<\/h3>\n

In the UK, 2.5 billion coffee cups are used and discarded annually. Only 0.25 percent of these cups, or less than 1 in 400, are recycled. Low Carbon Kent team of Kent County Council (KCC) sought to fund a study which examined the impact of disposable coffee cups in Kent.<\/p>\n

The approach<\/h3>\n

Dr Preetam Basu<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Professor Thanos Papadopoulos<\/a> from Kent Business School conducted a study, funded by the Low Carbon Kent team of Kent County Council (KCC).<\/p>\n

The result<\/h3>\n

The KBS study has found our local 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.<\/p>\n

The team found a lack of consumer awareness about \u2018why\u2019 and \u2018how\u2019 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>\u00a0said: \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>\n

The researchers found that there was a lack of public recycling bins in high streets throughout the county 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>\u00a0concluded: \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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the cold weather sets in and people reach for a hot drink, researchers from\u00a0Kent Business School\u00a0warn how disposable coffee cup waste is still placing … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74795,"featured_media":577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[140825,877,256068],"tags":[184923,19110,79492,281567,281562],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kei-case-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}