Paper mills use pulpers to break down the paper cups to extract the valuable fibre contained within them.
To meet the highest safety standards for consumers, paper cups are made from virgin fibres that are long in length, meaning that they are in demand from recyclers for high-quality applications, such as papers for the luxury packaging market or magazines.
Due to the use of blades in the pulpers, fibres are cut shorter each time they are recycled, but even then they can still be used for lower grade applications, such as cardboard boxes or tissue paper.
Our objective is to ensure paper cup fibres are recycled as many times as possible before they can no longer be used, which according to a study conducted by Graz University of Technology in Austria is at least 25 times before losing mechanical or structural integrity.
In addition to the recyclability of paper cups in standard mills, we have conducted large scale trials that prove paper cups can also be recycled in de-inking and specialist mills.
Standard mill
Standard mills are designed for the pulping fibre based packaging, including corrugated boxes and many folding cartons without or with minimal barriers, such as some cereal boxes, food packaging and paper cups.
De-inking mill
De-inking mills are designed for the pulping, cleaning and deinking of graphic paper grades, for example magazines.
Specialist mill
Specialist mills are designed for the separation and pulping of composite fibre-based packaging, such as beverage cartons and other materials with enhanced barrier properties. Certain specialist mills can also separate fibres and other materials to enable the recycling of all components.
European Paper Mill Partners
We are currently working with the following European paper mills who accept paper cups as a segregated material stream (to their required input specification) for recycling.
We are very interested in expanding our current European Paper Mill partner work and speaking to any organisations that have an interest in accepting paper cups and other fibre-composite food and beverage packaging.