This alarming animation shows the rate at which paper coffee cups are bought in the UK – with over 100 purchased every single second.
The tool shows a pile of standard-sized, 11cm tall paper cups stacking up as the seconds tick by – overtaking the 96-metre tall London landmark, Big Ben, in just 10 seconds.
Before the timer reaches 15 seconds, the pile is as high as Blackpool Tower (158 metres) – and by 30 seconds, it reaches the height of the Eiffel Tower (330 metres).
The eye-opening animation comes after a study of 2,000 adults, by hygiene and health company Essity, found Brits buy more than 3.2 BILLION drinks in paper cups every year – just under two billion of which won’t make their way into an appropriate recycling bin.
The average person purchases five paper cups every month, a total of 269,652,450, across the adult population.
But only 39% of those, who buy from fast food chains or restaurants, will make the effort to dispose of their cups properly.
The remaining cups – 1,973,855,934 a year – will either go into general waste bins, be left on tables, in cars, or dumped on the floor.
However, a proportion of the cups left on tables or the floor would still make their way to recycling – due to environmentally-conscious staff picking them up and disposing of them responsibly.
The shock findings show half of the 2,000 adults polled think it is too inconvenient to try and find a suitable recycling point – and often easier to deposit in the nearest general waste bin.
A spokesman for Essity, which also created the animated tool, said: “These are huge numbers, both in terms of how much people are buying and consuming, and how many paper cups aren’t making their way to the appropriate recycling points.
“It’s really important people know their used paper cups can be recycled – we can turn them into new Tork products, like the paper towels you use when visiting a washroom.
“If they’re not recycled then they end up in landfill, and that has a huge environmental impact.”
The study also found fast food chains and vending machines are the most popular places to purchase takeaway drinks, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and fizzy drinks.
Of the workers polled, almost a quarter (23%) buy more drinks in paper cups now they have returned to workplace – with 15% admitting the good habits they developed when working from home have already dropped off.
Only 36% would bother finding somewhere on the commute to dispose of their recyclable drink container, while more than a fifth (22%) would leave it on public transport.
However, across all adults polled via OnePoll, half (51%) feel guilty when not disposing of their cups responsibly.
And 39% own a keep cup in their attempt to save the planet.
Unfortunately, despite their best intentions, nearly three-quarters (71%) have been known to forget to take their eco-friendly vessel out with them.
In these situations, 41% would buy a drink in a paper cup, and 19% would opt for a plastic bottle – with just a third choosing to go without a drink altogether.
As many as 71% claim to be very concerned about recycling properly, but 36% think it can be very difficult to locate suitable points when out and about.
However, 44% actively avoid purchasing drinks in paper cups – with over half (59%) of those wanting to save the environment.
A further 35% of those who avoid buying paper cups said they are a pain to dispose of, while one in four (26%) never know which recycling points to use.
To illustrate the full cup recycling process, Essity has created a handy animated video.
A spokesman for the hygiene and health company, which is part of the nationwide Paper Cup Recycling Scheme, added: “Many people don’t know about the scheme here in the UK which makes it really easy for people to dispose of their paper cups responsibly, as and when they want to.
“Many of the biggest and most popular high street chains – including Costa Coffee, Greggs, and McDonalds – are part of the scheme, which allows people to buy their drink from one shop and drop their empty cup into a recycling bin at another.
“There are approximately 5,000 recycling points throughout the UK.
“The cups are then collected on a regular basis and taken to our factory, where they are stripped of any plastic coating, and then recycled back into fibre products such as paper towels and napkins.
“In the long run we hope to make this into a completely cyclical process, where these chains are then supplied back with the materials which were collected.”
