Quantifying the single-use plastic epidemic

1) The main problem with single-use coffee cups is their plastic content, which equates to around 5% of the cup - this renders recycling extremely difficult, as the plastic needs to be separated from the paper which is an onerous process. Because of this, less than 1% of single-use cups are actually recycled.

2) 16 billion paper cups are used for coffee every single year, which leads to 6.5 million trees cut down, 4 billion gallons of water going to waste, and enough energy to power 54,000 homes for a year also goes to waste’, according to Greenmatch.

3) According to Forbes, 1,000,0000 bottles are purchased every minute - 91% of these bottles are not recycled.

4) Of the 78 million tonnes of plastic produced globally each year, 32% of it is not sent to landfills. Instead, it pollutes land and sea with devastating consequences.

5) Nearly half of all plastic manufactured has been made since the year 2000.

6) Research from the World Economic Forum found that around 8% of the worlds oil production is used to make plastic - this figure is estimated to increase to 20% by 2050.

7) If you purchase one single-use cup each day, this equates to around 10kg of waste annually.