BBC Breakfast prime time TV programme and Radio 4’s respected Today programme both gave considerable positive PR to a British made board, already being used by some card publishers, that incorporates fibres from upcycling used disposable coffee cups.
The media was alerted about the board, made in the Lake District, by papermakers James Cropper, by GF Smith, which is marketing it under the Extract brand.
The recent high profile national publicity for a board which offers a solution to the wastage from used disposable coffee cups, came about following news footage on BBC North which featured GF Smith joint managing director John Haslam talking about how the board is hopefully a short term solution to a current problem over the mountains of coffee cups that hitherto could not be recycled due to their internal plastic coating.
In the UK it is said we use 4,861 disposable paper cups a minute, which is over seven million a day and right now, and less than one in 400 cups have been recycled.
Click to watch the BBC North feature here
Extract came about as a result of papermill James Cropper setting up CupCycling, the world’s first recycling process dedicated to upcycling takeaway cups.
While GF Smith is pleased with the 10 colour range Extract (which is now being used by Five Dollar Shake for one of its ranges), John hopes that it will eventually be discontinued as a result of the coffee cup mountain disappearing. “If we all stop using disposable cups then bingo, no reclaimed fibre,” says John. “We can then look at reclaiming paper plates, bowls and paper cartons.”
The window of GFSmith’s central London office, Show Space is currently dedicated to raising awareness of the product, with eye-catching art installations, created by Made Thought, featuring in the window and the internal gallery space.
Ahead of the launch of Extract, Glebe Cottage was the first card publisher to use board made by James Cropper that incorporates fibre from upcycled coffee cups. As part of its holistic approach to ensuring its business has as high environmental credentials as possible, the Devon-based publisher instigated using a specially made ‘café latte’ board from the Lake District papermakers back in August 2015 and has continued to publish ranges using it ever since.
Meanwhile, over in the other side of the world in Australia, greeting card publisher Henderson Greetings has just published its Coffee Cup range, printed using James Cropper–made board that incorporates fibres from recycled coffee cups.
As Eulinid Stevenson, ceo of Henderson and Waterlyn told PG Buzz: “The need for businesses to consider sustainability continues to grow in importance.”
