Environmental Report About Reusable Polypropylene Cups
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Environmental Report About Reusable Polypropylene Cups Executive summary In Sweden, between 500 and 1000 million paper cups are used every year. Paper cups present a single-use purpose and are thrown away after usage. Different reusable alternatives to single-use cups exist that differ in material and sizes. This report illustrates the environmental impact of reusable cups. It focuses on reusable cups made from polypropylene. The report shows a decreasing environmental impact of the coffee-to-go consumption with the use of reusable cups instead of disposable cups. This result is based on a multi-use assumption of reusable cups. The impact of washing reusable cups depends on the frequency of washing cycles, the water temperate and washing method. Regarding debris, reusable cups are preferred1. According to research, disposable cups litter on-street bins and litter facilitates further littering based on social norming2. In recent years, the consumption of single-use beverage cups for tea, coffee and other drinks increased. Waste volumes grew with a rising dependence on disposable packaging in relation to a growing ‘on the go’ and throwaway culture3. Seas at Risk (2017) estimates that 479.2 million coffee cups are consumed per year in Sweden, which equals 4.800 tonnes of disposable cups according to SMED (2019). These numbers are an underestimate as not all coffee-to-go retailers were included in the study4. 1 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 6 2 House of Commons, Disposable Packaging: Coffee Cups, 2018, p. 6 3 Expert Panel on Environmental Charging and Other Measures, Recommendations on Single-use Disposable Beverage Cups, 2019, p. 10 4 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 8 1. Purpose and scope The goal of this report is to illustrate the environmental impact of reusable compared to disposable coffee-to-go cups. It focuses on the question how many times a reusable cup has to be used in order for it to pay off environmentally, compared to consuming coffee in disposable cups. The studied product system refers to reusable polypropylene (PP) cups that are compared to paper cups based on existing research findings. Limits of the report include the lack of research regarding the specific polypropylene cup. Therefore, this report combines existing research and presents a starting point for a long-term life-cycle analysis. Washing and transport are also included in the underlying findings. 2. Key indicators of environmental impact Three stages are taken into consideration regarding the environmental impact: - Production - Use - Post Use Regarding the environmental impact, emission plays a large role. Climate change is a societal challenge. Global warming is caused by an increasing concentration of chemical substances that absorb infrared radiation which leads to rising temperatures. This results from greenhouse gas emissions and are caused by human activities5. Moreover, natural resource use needs to be taken into account following the depletion of natural resources in the current linear consumption model. Regarding pollution, littering of disposable cups harms animals and nature and costs money. Single-use paper cups contain a plastic inlining that is persistent and breaks down 5 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 19 slowly in nature until it becomes microplastic. Microplastic is problematic as it is difficult to collect and easy to absorb by animals6. 2.1. Production The production of raw materials and the production of cups are taken into account. Paper is the main component of single-use paper cups with an additional plastic coating. The used reusable cups are made from a plastic, namely polypropylene that is 100% recyclable. The reusable cup production is based in Germany at an energy efficient company that also installed an alternative system to improve their energy efficiency. 2.2. Use A key factor in the use phase of reusable cups is the washing. A safe estimate is the energy use of a common household dishwasher. Underlying data assumes a washing of the cups after every usage. Water, electricity and detergent have been included7. Considering the energy input to produce and to wash, a “breakeven” point can be calculated, where using a reusable cup becomes as efficient as using a disposable cup. Formula: Breakeven number of uses = (Energy of Reusable cup)/(Energy of Disposable cup - Energy of wash)8 6 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 20 7 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 22 8 David Evans, Cups: Single Use (Disposable) vs. Reusable – An Honest Comparison, 26.12.2019 2.3. Post use Disposable cups are discarded in mass and the most common types are difficult to recycle. The plastic lining in paper cups prevents a paper cup from becoming saturated, leak and to fall apart. This plastic lining must be separated from the paper in the recycling process which makes the recycling process difficult and costly. In fact, most recycling centres are not equipped to process them. For example, only 0.25% of disposable cups are recycled in the UK9. Regarding polypropylene cups, waste management is not included as the cups are 100% recyclable and will last for thousands of uses10. Therefore, the impact of recycling returned PP cups into non-food components should further be studied. 3. Results 3.1. Climate impact Producing one disposable cup has a lower environmental impact than producing one reusable cup. The manufacturing of a paper cup requires less energy input than reusable alternatives. Nevertheless, manufacturing paper cups requires the natural material of paper which comes from trees. According to the study conducted by IVL (2019), a bamboo cup must be used a minimum of 15 times and a thermal cup 45 times for it to pay off in terms of environmental impact. During a use over one year (52 weeks) with three coffees per week, paper cups with fossil-based PE coating have 6 times higher environmental impact than bamboo cups and 3 times higher than thermal cups. Based on research, it can be assumed that reusable PP 9 House of Commons, Disposable Packaging: Coffee Cups, 2018, p. 3 10 David Evans, Cups: Single Use (Disposable) vs. Reusable – An Honest Comparison, 26.12.2019 cups have a lower rate than bamboo cups as PP cups are made with less material, are more lightweight and have, therefore, a smaller impact during the production and washing phase11. According to another study, a break even point for reusable plastic cups can be as low as 7 uses12. 3.2. Use impact Following a report by Starbucks, using reusable cups offers economic benefits including cost savings and greater customer satisfaction. The cost break-even point for ceramic cups was 15 to 20 uses. It can be assumed that this number is smaller for polypropylene cups as ceramic cups are more expensive in the purchase. Based on their results, using 10 reusable ceramic cups per hour, the cafe faced daily cost savings of $17.85. Annually, this accounts for $6,426 cost savings, 30.870 litres of water savings, 513 kg of greenhouse gas reductions and 570 kg solid waste reductions. Moreover, the larger use of reusables did not measurably increase dishwasher use. Starbucks analysed an increasing customer satisfaction as customers preferred using reusable cups as they insulate coffee well, are attractive, and prevent waste. 82 percent of their customers surveyed would like to use reusable cups with 59 percent stating an environmental benefit. Furthermore, environmental programs such as reusable cup programs add value to the brand and business13. In regard to the return system developed by loop-it, the reusable cups can be used up to 1000 times, according to current data, and 100% recycled following a cradle-to-cradle approach. 11 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 25 12 David Evans, Cups: Single Use (Disposable) vs. Reusable – An Honest Comparison, 26.12.2019 13 Report of the Starbucks Coffee Company / Alliance for Environmental Innovation Joint Task Force, 15.042000, p. 9-10 Figure 1: Product life-cycle of reusable polypropylene cups14 3.3. Waste impact Disposable cups contribute to waste. Even though most Swedish people sort their waste at home, to-go cups are usually thrown away on the go after drinking the beverage which makes the sorting difficult. 80 percent of marine debris derives from on-shore sources with waste coming from an insufficient cleaning of streets and public areas. Retailers are changing to more sustainable alternatives regarding their to-go packaging which can lead to a misleading assumption that biodegradable packaging is more sustainable as it degrades in nature. This is usually not the case as biodegradable plastics require specific conditions to degrade completely. An incomplete degradation can lead to microplastics. Degradable plastics do not align with the current recycling system as it cannot be mixed with fossil-based plastics15. Therefore, most single-use cups end in landfill (see figure 2). 14 Own illustration 15 IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet, Vilken kaffemugg är bäst för miljön?, 2019, p. 26-27 Figure 2: Illustration of the disposal of single-use cup16 4.Summary Reusable cups have a longer lifespan making their overall environmental impact lower than single-use cups. The disposal of single-use cups poses threats such as the cost of waste collection and the accumulation of these products in the oceans, when they are not taken to landfill or incinerated. The greatest part of the environmental impact of disposable cups arise from the use of raw materials, waste management, and transport. Important factors for reusable cups include their longevity and reusing property. If a reusable cup is not used several times, the environmental burden of the production is higher than of a disposable cup.