We have started to notice even more supposedly 'green' catering disposable products appearing on the market - notably PLA lined paper cups which are all ‘derived from natural sustainable resources’.

Many companies play on peoples’ consciences to buy these products but many do not see the big picture, that some of these products can create more waste and do more harm than good.

Putting aside the puzzling fact that parts of the world are felling trees to create space to grow corn crops to meet our demand for low CO2 produced products (who thought that one up?, -  we need the trees to convert the CO2 into oxygen!) using PLA lined paper cups can reduce the amount we recycle!

I will elaborate.

PLA lined paper cups will separate when decomposing leaving a paper ‘mulch’ and the PLA lining.

99.9% of all paper cups used at the moment are not biodegradable due to the oil based poly lining on the inside which prevent liquids seeping into the paper walls. However these cups can be recycled into some other product.

As I have stated in previous blogs, adding this new kind of paper cup with PLA lining into the ‘mix’, however noble the intentions, will create more waste than previously created with the oil based poly lined paper cups.

If one of these PLA cups is put into a batch of ‘normal’ paper cups

for recycling (and you cannot visibly tell the difference)  the PLA will react with the oil based poly lined materials and ruin the whole batch of paper, making it completely non recyclable!

So my advice is to question any company that states products they sell are helping the environment, and ask them if they have thought about what was removed from the land to create the space for their corn crops etc and how the product they produce or market is disposed of.

What percentage of people do you think actually take their PLA cups home and compost them? Could you even tell if you were handed a PLA cup? I doubt most people outside the industry would know.

*PLA paper or plastic cups will not biodegrade in landfill

*There is only one dedicated recycling company in the UK which will collect waste paper cups, and they will not touch PLA lined paper cups.

*We have spent years giving farm subsidies to farmers in Africa to help them create crops and stand on their own two feet, now we are mass producing those same crops for fuel and alternatives to plastics, lowering the price as a result, and plunging these people back into poverty.