AkzoNobel creates ‘world’s first’ fully recyclable paper cup

Paints and coatings company AkzoNobel has announced that it has created the ‘world’s first’ fully compostable and recyclable paper cup for cold drinks.

Simliar to Green Your Cup’s coffee liner idea, AkzoNobel’s new coatings barrier, EvCote™ Water Barrier 3000, is made from plant-based oils and recycled PET bottles and protects paper cups from moisture and grease, thus preserving the quality of the paper fibre without any chemical influence. (Most paper cups are currently are lined with polyethylene films.)

As such, it is claimed that the paper cups can be recycled without any loss of quality, and, in some cases, ‘due to the fibers being strengthened by the coating’, paper produced from the waste can ‘achieve higher strength than the original, uncoated paper’. 

AkzoNobel also claims that the coating could enable paper mills to recapture 100 percent of the paper waste from the production process, resulting in ‘significant financial savings’.

"Offering customers a replacement for petroleum-based PE films"

Picture courtesy of AkzoNobel

Speaking of the coating, Conrad Keijzer, AkzoNobel’s Executive Committee member responsible for Performance Coatings, said: "This is an industry-changing innovation which could have a significant impact in terms of providing economic and environmental benefits along the value chain. The new coatings technology will help restaurant owners and cup producers to reduce their waste." 

Gil Sherman, Market Development Manager at AkzoNobel’s Paper Coatings business, added: "The cost of paper represents the highest single cost for cup makers, so recycling the industrial scrap means that there are both cost and environmental benefits.

"With the growth of bio-PET, EvCote™ provides us with options to completely disconnect from the petrol supply chain, because now we can offer our customers a replacement for petroleum-based PE films." 

The firm has said that there has already been ‘strong interest’ in the product.

Paper cup recycling innovations

The coating is the newest innovation that aims to reduce waste from disposable drinks cups. Last year, the ‘world’s first’ recycling facility capable of recycling disposable coffee cups opened in Cumbria, and in July 2014, stakeholders of the paper cup and retail supply chain announced the launch of the formalised Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG), that aims to ‘continue to drive action around the development of the collection and recycling opportunities for paper cups’ by identifying and supporting ‘solutions to sustainably transform used paper cups into a valuable resource’.

Further to this, a new paper cup recycling scheme, Simply Cups, launched in the UK earlier this month (with its official launch set for 20 August).

Read more about AkzoNobel’s EvCote™ Water Barrier 3000.