The average packaging materials made of paper (packaging of food, spirits, medicines, products of beauty or even newsprint papers, etc) which are recyclable – several times– are coated with different materials as well but for a purpose of good printability, texture, gloss and never for gluing. In the ordinary paper recycling process, when they put a huge waste of different type of papers together, they easily separate it from the paper together with printing inks, short fibres, other non-paper components and the residual fibres can be repulped and processed into new paper row material what can be converted into a new paper product (book, boxes, packaging, etc.)

The PE or PLA plastic coatings – acting as a glue as well- can’t get separated from the paper in this process so the plastic would grinded in the pulp. That would result on one hand the new (recycled) outcoming paper material not to be recyclable anymore so it would end on the landfill once it turns into a waste. On the other hand, since plastic never biodegrades (it does within 400 years so in a human-scale we can say never) the new paper-based product coming out from the recycling plant would harmful the nature like ordinary paper cups do.

Therefore, ordinary paper cups are not recyclable but they end on a landfill where they bury them so increase the plastic waste.

Compostable paper cup was introduced as a development for a solution to this environmental disaster caused by the huge amount of PE coated paper cups. The idea was to use a coating which can make the cup waterproof and glue the fan into a shape of a cup meantime it is compostable thus completely possible to eliminate once it turns to be a waste and close the loop.

This coating called PLA which is a type of a plastic however it is plant-based while PE is a petroleum-based one. At the end it didn’t bring a solution because of some different reasons:

Even in those countries who are at the first place in the industrial composting, the process of breaking down these cups is not readily available. The system to collect these cups from everywhere and bring them to those few composters are not well-developed, there are not enough composter collectors placed at the public buildings and would require quite an investment to work it up including the special logistic to the composting plants, or to build more composting plants, against the paper waste collecting and recycling which is already a satisfactorily existing system of eliminating the paper waste. Therefore almost 100% of PLA coated biodegradable paper cups end in a landfill and won’t ever be composted.

Since PLA is also a plastic it is not possible to recycle together with normal paper waste because of the same reason like PE-coated paper cups, therefore, again, these cups end on the landfills and increase the plastic waste.

PLA as a plant-based plastic behaves the same like PE, petroleum-based one and won’t ever biodegrade thus would a cup end up outside the waste handling but in the nature, it won’t break down so compostable paper cups are the same harmful like PE-coated when they are not composted.

Additionally, compostable cups contain an average of 92% virgin paper just like PE-coated cups do thus it is too valuable to be turned into mulch after a single use instead of producing new products of it up to 7 times.

In conclusion, compostable paper cups won’t get composed at the end and cause the same problems like the ordinary paper cups due to its’ plastic contain.

Eco-Select paper cup has a special, plastic-free dispersion barrier instead of traditional plastic coatings which besides avoids the liquid to saturate to the paper part and keeps the paper fan in a cup-shape, can be Recycled with normal paper waste. This barrier can get separated from the paper easily (together with printing inks, short fibres, other non-paper components) during the ordinary paper waste recycling so the paper part is pulpable and they can produce paper of it again, later new paper-based products.

Thanks to this structure when Eco-Select paper cups turn into a waste can be eliminated with integrating to the existing, well-developed paper recycling system so Eco-Select paper cups can be collected with normal paper waste to be recycled, therefore they don’t have to end on the landfill and don’t increase the waste anymore, like PE-coated or compostable cups.

The most evident way – in both environmental and economical point of view- of eliminating a paper waste when the structure allows, is recycling as it is already a well developed system, no additional facility is needed by the brands who use paper cups but strive to decrease the waste. Recycling entirely eliminates the waste so results a zero-waste, therefore closes the loop meantime a new raw material (recycled paper) will be retrieved.

1 Eco-Select paper cup can be recycled up to 7 times to produce other paper-based products while no need to cut a tree out.

Besides thanks to this product is plastic-free, in such a case when it ends outside of a trash bin, it won’t bother the nature like PE-coated or compostable PLA-coated ones do.

Considering all these features of Eco-Select cup and looking at the entire lifecycle we can state that this paper cup is completely sustainable since comes from a renewable source, do not damage the environment as it is plastic-free and follows the waste hierarchy’s motto of “Three R’s” say Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, thusly resulting Eco-Select cups to be thoroughly environmentally-friendly.

Wecup – the producer of the Eco-Select paper cups – was born as a start-up from a rib of the Hungarian company UgrinPack Ltd which is a second-generation family company, has been producing flexible packaging materials made of mainly papers for typically food, HORECA, catering and electronical industry.

We have been committed to develop sustainable, plasticfree products on the most optimal way for several years so could utilise our knowledge and experience in the brand-new product of recyclable, plastic-free and biodegradable EcoSelect paper cup.

The two companies are located at the same plant therefore all the partial operations – including customizing the paper cups by printing them on a Flexo machine by Ugrinpack Ltdare accomplished by our group that allows to control quality precisely and completely at each stage of production and delivery. Furthermore, this integrated production line results a low environmental footprint and is more cost-effective meantime we can be quite flexible in case of special demands too.

We are one of the founder of the First Hungarian Packaging Technology Cluster – Omnipack with 32 members of enterprise – which holds the Silver label by the European Cluster Management Excellent Initiative (ECEI) and can provide an Audit of Packaging Technology in terms of RRR (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in order to offer a custom solution for the less amount and the most eco-friendly packaging materials according to the activity of an enterprise. Today – due to the significantly increased amount of waste by packaging materials in the FMCG sector- it is an extremely important global task to develop the packaging truly sustainable and thus environmentally-friendly. These changing in technologies have just started and the best practices are continuously under developing by a partnership of waste management experts, laboratories, universities and producers in cooperation with more and more brands worldwide.

We are also involved in two international projects – called. Usable packaging and Biocompac- with several enterprises, institutes across Europe where the main aim is to find the most optimal construction of paper-based packaging materials, taking into account both the functionality/design and the waste management of these materials instead of
using a plastic-coated (PE, PLA, etc.) paper.