Paper Coffee Cups
There are lots of new triple layer paper cups emerging onto the market at the moment, and many very competitively priced ones to boot.
The cost of making triple layer cups does not change a lot from machine to machine, the cost of the right type of materials doesn’t alter either, allowing for economies of scale (purchasing power) wouldn’t alter things significantly either, so how can there be massive differences in the cost price of Paper Coffee Cups from one manufacturer to another? Well, there is only really one way to reduce cost – use cheaper materials.
Unfortunately, the material some manufacturers are compromising in order to reduce the cost of this product is the quality of the paper used.
Despite the current recycling issues and green issues in general our besieged government sometimes make correct decisions, in particular laws regarding goods which come into contact with foodstuffs. It is against the law for any product which comes into direct contact with food to be made using recycled material as untreated paper (that may have once been lavatory roll for example) could make a user ill if filled with hot liquid (such as tea as toxins can migrate into the foodstuffs. There is no way of checking what the recycled paper was once used for – it could have contained chemicals and make people seriously sick.
All our Triple Wall Cups are manufactured with food grade board and are sent for testing with PIRA (Printing Industry Research Association) who test the cups to make sure all the paper board used in their production is food grade and the product is legal for sale in the EU. Any element of recycled material and the triple wall cups will fail and would not be safe.
You might ask how producers can ‘get away’ with distributing these cups without lawsuits etc? I imagine few of you reading this were aware that this could happen? Most people simply assume that firms will check the quality of the Paper Coffee Cups used or sold by them. If you became ill after a cup of tea would you look suspiciously at the paper cup, or wonder if the milk was off? I bet you would suspect the paper cup last of all.
In the main the only firms asking for food contact certificates to be delivered prior to delivery of Ripple Cups are the likes of Burger King and the other large restaurants and coffee shops but anybody selling or using disposable cups should be asking for these certificates too. The first organisation to be prosecuted will be the one without the correct documents.
To help you identify if you may have unsuitable cups there is a check you can perform yourself. Ripple cups are also often described as ‘triple layer cups’ and there is one simple way to check if your coffee cups are manufactured using the correct board quality, and that is to tear the outer layer of the paper cup to reveal the hidden third layer of paper board.
Cups using unsuitable recycled paper board will be brown or grey, the proper legal board will normally be white.
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