Starbucks is to trial a British-made cup which can be recycled after it was found nearly all paper coffee cups are thrown away.
The US company has responded to concerns that as many as 2.5 billion disposable cups are dumped or incinerated every year in the UK.
Most people are under the impression that the takeaway cups handed out by the coffee shop chains can be recycled.
But 399 out of every 400 are not because they are made with a plastic coating that means they cannot be processed.
British entrepreneur Martin Myerscough has developed the recyclable Frugalpac cup, which has a thin plastic membrane that floats away during the paper recycling process, meaning the materials can be re-used.
Earlier this year anti-waste campaigner and chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched a campaign against coffee cup waste. Starbucks agreed to offer customers a 50p discount on drinks if they brought in their own cups, and is now going one step further by agreeing to run a trial on the new ‘green’ cups.
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