The coffee cup recycling myth

So you’ve picked up your morning coffee on your way to campus, you’ve finished that last sip of productivity juice and you’re looking for a bin to throw your once-used piece of packaging into. You see two bins as you enter the building: recycling and landfill.

Your eyes glance over the landfill bin. You’ve used this cup for a maximum of ten minutes, do you really want to add it to the one billion coffee cups Australians throw out each year?

In a matter of guilt-ridden seconds, you opt for the recycling bin. Hooray! Recycling makes you feel good. You watch it disappear into the yellow bin, to be recycled into… something useful, you re-assure yourself. You continue on your way, without giving it another thought. But did you know...

Disposable coffee cups cannot be recycled at UniMelb

Most disposable cups contain a plastic inner layer which is too difficult to separate from the paper in the recycling process. Because of this, general mixed recycling in Victoria cannot take them. So make sure to put yours in the correct bin—the red landfill bin.

There is an exception to every rule. For example, at Parkville campus, Axil Coffee Roasters on Tin Alley sell takeaway coffee in Recycle Me cups which contain a different type of lining. This means they can be recycled through their own dedicated recycling facilities, which Axil provides a collection bin for in house.

However, Recycle Me cups can still not go into the yellow mixed recycling bins on campus.

But my barista gives me a compostable coffee cup…

Some disposable coffee cups are ‘compostable’. But what does this actually mean?

To end up being composted, some packaging can be composted at home, but most needs to be processed through a commercial composting facility. There are currently no waste streams that take compostable items at the university.

In addition to this, compostable coffee cups cannot be recycled in any mixed recycling in Australia.

So any compostable cups brought onto campus must also go in the red landfill bin.

Don’t want to add to the 2.7 million coffee cups Australians throw out every day?

There are a number of ways you can still enjoy your daily caffeine hit while avoiding waste altogether.

  1. Take a break away from study or the office and stay in the café to enjoy a cup.
  2. If you’re grabbing a coffee near Union House, pick up one of our reusable mugs and choose to reuse. You can take-away and return these mugs at a drop off station at any time.
  3. Are you a Barettos or Porta Via regular? Buy a SwapCup and you won’t need to carry a cup around with you! These cafes will hold onto your cup in exchange for a token that you can keep on you until your next visit.
  4. Bring your own reusable cup. Any ceramic mugs, KeepCups or Frank Green cups are great options. Order a UniMelb KeepCup with us today to get a great discount.

Did you know?

By using a reusable cup just 17 times, you will offset the energy required to produce it. That’s only 2 and a half weeks if you’re a caffeine addict like us! So do your bit—reconsider that nasty disposable cup that sticks around longer than your morning coffee breathe, and choose to reuse!

To find out more about waste streams at UniMelb, visit Waste and Recycling.

More Information

Sustainable Campus

sustainable-campus@unimelb.edu.au