Recycled products made with paper cups
Paper cups including coffee cups can be recycled with Simply Cups. They can not be recycled in traditional recycling facilities such as at home or in your kerbside recycling.
Simply Cups work with partners to create and support innovative technologies capable of discovering high value uses for paper cups.
What are cups recycled into?
Simply Cups are currently working with three partners to produce sustainable and high-performing alternatives to everyday products such as roads and lightweight concrete products.
PAK-PAVE™ fibre
PAK-PAVE™ is an engineered cellulose fibre additive for asphalt, made from post-consumer takeaway coffee cups. It replaces a conventional imported fibre, with a locally-made, recycled fibre.
PAK-PAVE™ has been developed to work with standard asphalt product and paving equipment. It delivers
- Improved binder drainage performance
- Material efficiency by substituting dense-graded asphalt with thin-lift pavement
- Reduced project carbon emissions
- A local end market for recovered consumer packaging
You can find PAK-PAVE™ in roads across local councils such as Penrith City Council and Monash City Council, and it is specified in Victoria's Big Build SMA pavements.
The development of PAK-PAVE™ was facilitated through the Commonwealths Cooperative Research Centres Program Grant, involving the University of NSW and has been sanctioned by the NSW EPA and Transport NSW.
Lightweight concrete products
EnviroLite Concrete Products are made with at least 35% recycled materials and used as bases under utility products such as water tanks and bins. These products are half the weight of standard concrete alternatives.
Simply Cups have partnered with Gully Concrete Products to create and engineer these lightweight concrete products.
RESIN8®
RESIN8® is an eco-aggregate made from approximately 80 per cent recycled material. Manufactured by transforming mixed plastic, e-waste and Simply Cups fibre into a mineral-polymer, it is designed for use in concrete and asphalt.
What makes RESIN8® remarkable is that it does not leach and does not create pathways to microplastics. Even better, RESIN8® is infinitely recyclable. Once the concrete or asphalt reaches the end of its life, it can be crushed and reused again.
RESIN8® is produced by SCG Transmutation, a joint venture between Transmutation, owned by Brad Scott, and Sustainable Concrete Group. The joint venture is producing Australia’s lowest-carbon concrete, and possibly one of the lowest-carbon concretes in the world.
Concrete is one of the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions. RESIN8® connects challenging waste streams with construction demand to deliver a double benefit: diverting plastic, e-waste and cups from landfill while replacing virgin aggregate in concrete with a high-performance recycled material. “We’re taking materials that are difficult to recycle and keeping them in use in the infrastructure circular economy,” says Scott.
Previous recycling solutions
Since 2017, Simply Cups have worked different partners to re-invent everyday products with paper cups. As technology advances and improves, we continue to find more innovative solutions to recycling cups.
The following items were previously made with cups collected by Simply Cups.
rCUP:
The world's first reusable coffee cup made with recycled coffee cups. Available for purchase.
Stay Tray:
Made with cups and recycled polypropylene.
Available for purchase.
PLUS Post fence posts:
Outdoor fenceposts made with cups.
No longer available for purchase.
Garden beds and garden edging:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
No longer available for purchase.
AC Mounting Blocks:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
No longer available for purchase.
Wheel stops:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
No longer available for purchase.
Bike lane separators/speed bumps:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
No longer available for purchase.
Buckets & Lids:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
Can be manufactured in large quantities.
Food trays:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
Can be manufactured in large quantities.
Cat litter trays:
Made with cups and soft plastics.
Can be manufactured in large quantities.