What Happens to Your Coffee Cup After You Drink It?

Over the last few years, there has been a huge shift towards sustainability. People are becoming more concerned about climate change and global warming and are searching for ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

For avid coffee drinkers who want to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, using unsustainable cups is a cause for concern. Thick plastic cups, for example, that end up in landfills has negative impacts on the environment and contributes to land and sea pollution. Yikes!

How Do We Switch to More Sustainable Sips?

If you’re a coffee brand or cafe, it’s important to consider where your coffee cups have come from. You also need to consider what happens to your coffee cups after customers are finished with them.

You might be wondering, ‘are paper coffee cups compostable?’ Finding ways to use commercially compostable coffee cups over unsustainable cups is one of the most effective ways to minimize our collective carbon footprint while still serving up our favorite morning beverage.

Sustainable Coffee Drinking

Switching to commercially compostable paper cups is one of the best ways to encourage customers to be more eco-friendly. They can go for your usual sweet Mocha, spicy Chai Latte, or classic Americano without worrying about the negative environmental impacts of enjoying your best brews!

Luckily, more and more coffee brands, small and large, are taking the right steps toward becoming more environmentally friendly. They’re using paper coffee cups from responsibly sourced materials and making a conscious effort to recycle as many used cups as possible.

Lots of companies have introduced ‘zero waste to landfill’ programs that support the sustainability movement. They have implemented environmentally friendly practices to avoid filling up landfills, minimize carbon emissions, and slow down climate change.

Disposing of Your Coffee Cup in a Sustainable Way

Despite many companies introducing sustainability programs and using compostable paper cups, their customers often forget to properly dispose their cups. Instead of disposing of their cups by composting, they throw them into the general waste.

As a cafe brand or coffee shop, you’re in control over what type of coffee cup you provide for your customers. By consciously making an effort to use compostable paper coffee cups, and educate customers on commercially composting, you ensure that you’re minimizing your carbon footprint and contributing toward the positive sustainability movement.

The Lining of Your Coffee Cups

Paper coffee cups aren’t just made from paper, however. They have an inner lining that protects the liquid inside the cup from leaking out.

Usually, the lining is made from plastic polymers (such as the eco-friendlier polylactic acid) or paraffin wax. When you dispose of your compostable coffee cups, you need to keep this in mind. Nowadays, coffee shops may use eco-friendly disposable coffee cups that can be 100% composted, including both the outer paper container and the inner PLA lining.

What Happens to Coffee Cups When They Are Composted?

When customers throw a compostable paper coffee cup into a commercial compost, it goes through several steps of biodegrading. The inner PLA lining breaks down during the reprocessing.

More composting companies are realizing the importance of properly disposing of paper coffee cups. Companies that previously didn’t offer coffee cup composting as part of their offerings are now focusing their efforts on providing these services.

Since millions of paper coffee cups are used and thrown away every day, making a conscious effort to compost them makes a huge difference for the environment. It drastically reduces the number of cups that are unnecessarily being added to overflowing landfills and reduces land pollution.

☕️ That's a Wrap!

Whether you’re serving daily coffee drinkers or want to reach new customers, it’s important to be aware of what paper coffee cups your brand uses.

Coffee shops that make a conscious effort to provide compostable and biodegradable coffee cups are regarded favorably by many customers. Similarly, educating customers of the proper way to dispose your compostable paper cups will reduce the collective carbon footprint.

Make sure your customers sip on, sustainably! noissue Compostable Coffee Cups with Lids aren't just eco-friendly – they can also be customized to your brand colors and logo! Elevate the look and feel of your cafe's takeout coffee and teas by using personalized coffee cups that customers can recycle after enjoying.

Looking for something more minimal and still sustainable? Check out our unbranded, recycled and recyclable stock cups!