Reusable Coffee Cups

Coffee is no doubt one of the most popular beverages in the world, with more than 600 billion cups consumed each year. Most people will usually grab one while rushing to work and some offices calling in orders for an afternoon pick-me-up for the troops. The disposable cup is so convenient, grab at the counter and dispose of after the drink and move on with your day, but have you ever stopped to think if these cups are actually recyclable or not? Disposable coffee cups are lined with 5% polyethylene plastic, meaning they can't be put in recycling bins as most people would assume. With this small amount of plastic on the inner lining, this means they are classed in the single-use category.

Here are some of the top reasons why you should consider making the switch to a reusable coffee cup:

Around 500 billion disposable cups are discarded to the landfill every year. That's one million cups a minute, every hour of every day of every year.
More than 20 million trees are cut down each year in the United State alone to make paper coffee cups. Every tree cut is a contribution to global warming as well as habitat loss for plant and animal species.
Reusable cups promote a larger movement of reuse and sustainability.
Compostable and biodegradable paper cups cannot be put into household compost.
Coffee cups are the second-largest contributor to litter waste after plastic bottles.
That single-use coffee cup, that you have used for around 15 minutes, will outlast your time on earth.
About 200litres of water are used in the production of one disposable coffee cup.
Since you've started reading this article, 100,000 disposable cups have gone to landfill.

So what is the solution?

Don't take away — drink your coffee from the ceramic cups or latte glasses at the cafe
Bring your own reusable cup

Here are some of our favourite reusable cups:

Pottery For The Planet

Joco Cups

Frank Green