North West Vending has announced its commitment to supply its customers with plastic free cups during 2022
‘We need action in the here and now, not just a commitment to what we will do tomorrow’, MD Mike Cowley told PV. ‘As part of our strategy to reduce the environmental impact of used cups, we want to provide our customers with a greener and more sustainable offering which is, where possible, plastic free. Single-use plastics take five seconds to make, five minutes to use and 500 years to biodegrade. We say we throw them away, but really there is no such place as ‘away’.
We use 2.5 billion coffee cups a year. That’s enough to wrap the planet five and a half times over. ‘Like most people, I thought that coffee cups were recycled, but the sad truth is that they’re not’, Mike said. ‘Their plastic coating, which is thinner than a human hair, means that most of them end up either in landfill or an incinerator. The coffee shop industry tells us that disposable coffee cups are recyclable, but ‘recyclable’ does not mean ‘recycled’.
‘Paper mills don’t want them and neither do plastics reprocessors. That’s the reason that one in every 400 cups is recycled, which is just 0.25%’, Mike added. ‘There are just three recycling plants in England that can handle them.What’s more, if someone puts their coffee cup in a recycling bin, in a coffee shop or on the go, not only will it will not be recycled, it could also contaminate the other papers and plastics in the bin.’
At North West Vending, committing to plastic free vending cups is no longer an ambition. The company has introduced a new ‘Pure Paper’ vending cup. There’s no plastic used in the lining.
‘Pure Paper cups can be recycled easily in standard wastepaper recycling streams’, Mike said. It’s simple, easy, effective and an industry first. I want to assure our customers that they can rely on North West Vending to supply the solutions that an ever-changing world demands.’
- What is a ‘Pure Paper’ cup? Click Here for the low-down.
- There’s more from North West Vending on Planet Vending. Click Here
