Today’s Solutions: April 20, 2026

An estimated 60 billion paper cups in the US end up in landfills every year because they can’t be recycled easily. A coffee cup is an environmental nightmare. Most are made from cardboard with a thin layer of plastic tightly attached to the cup. This keeps the drink warm and prevents the cardboard from becoming soggy. But it also makes the cup non-recyclable. It takes about 20 years for such a cup to decompose. Campaigners have long been pushing for retailers to start using more sustainable cups. Starbucks has now agreed to test a new fully recyclable kind of coffee cup in the UK. The plastic liner of the new cup is only lightly bonded onto the paper. The design allows the plastic lining to be easily separated in a recycling plant.

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