Sydney drinks a lot of takeaway coffees – and in an ideal world we’d all be using keep cups, but we don’t live in an ideal world. In the inner city of Sydney alone, 100 million takeaway coffee cups end up in landfill every year, according to the City of Sydney. Some good news, though: the humble coffee cup can be turned into asphalt – and that’s exactly what Penrith City Council has done to lay a new stretch of road.
They’ve used coffee cups as well as 1.2 million glass bottles to create a special type of asphalt called PAK-PAVETM, and then used that to resurface Jamison Road in South Penrith and Swallow Drive in Erskine Park.
The Australian-first project has been a community effort – locals dropped off their used coffee cups, which were then collected by recycling organisation Closed Loop, as part of their Simply Cups program.
Closed Loop MD told the Sydney Morning Herald this has been a huge win for the circular economy, as coffee cups have been historically very difficult to recycle. “[They] are challenging to recycle because of their waterproof lining,” he said. “The Simply Cups program has saved more than 30 million paper cups such as coffee cups and takeaway soft drink cups from landfill since beginning in 2017.”
This innovative move for sustainability and infrastructure will hopefully encourage more Sydney districts to follow suit.
Next time you smash your morning latte, think about dropping it off at a Simply Cups collection point and watch it go on to find a new upcycled life. Head here to find out where your closest drop-off point is.