Posted by Magda
Apparently top secret US navy research has led to a paper lid, to top a paper cup, so the two can bee recycled together. That was revealed to Toronto's coffee-lid working group yesterday, as they met for the first time to try to figure out how to deal with the tremendous numbers of disposable coffee cups in the city's waste stream.
One proposal had been to ban cups in which the lid is made of a different material than the cup itself, to ease recycling. That led to some outcry last year when it became clear that favoured styrofoam cups with plastic lids over the typical plastic-lined paper cups with plastic lids.
- Could top-secret U.S. Navy coffee-cup lid be the answer to our prayers?, Globe and Mail, Jan. 15
Secret military research conducted at a little-known facility in Seattle, world capital of take-out coffee, has produced the "Holy Grail of environmentalists," according to Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, colourful chairman of the city works committee.
A paper lid that fits snugly on a paper take-out cup.
"They said, 'We can build nuclear plants but we can't make a paper lid,' " Mr. De Baeremaeker exclaimed, recalling his recent debate on recyclable lids with Canadian coffee titan Tim Hortons. "They said, 'It's impossible. It's never been done. We have no suppliers. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't do it.' "
And so on, and on and on."Well here it is," he concluded, flourishing the artifact in question. "It's rather cute."


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