Disposable paper cups comprise typical single-use plastic items, as they are lined internally with a thin plastic coating for waterproofing. They are consumed at a staggering rate worldwide, with the UK alone consuming around 7 million cups daily, thus annually producing around 30,000 tonnes of paper cup waste. Contrary to popular belief, less than 1 in 400 paper cups is currently recycled in the UK, which is in stark contrast to the waste hierarchy and the European Commission’s ambitious Circular Economy Action Plan. Paper cups typically end up in landfill sites or even improperly disposed of, contributing to (micro)plastic waste and potentially polluting the world's oceans. The implications of the latter are not fully known yet and cannot be quantified by existing life cycle impact assessment methods. By employing the life cycle assessment methodology, UK’s annual carbon footprint from paper cup consumption was found to be 75 kt of carbon dioxide equivalents, which is similar to that of manufacturing 11,500 mid-size passenger cars. Globally, their environmental footprint was found to be comparable to that of some 1.5 M average European inhabitants, suggesting the nature and extent of single-use plastic items problem, which paper cup is just a typical example. Paper cup recycling could reduce this environmental footprint by up to 40%, whereas switching to reusable cups appears to be more environmentally sustainable, achieving a threefold reduction in carbon emissions, which is more than twice Malta’s annual carbon footprint. Results indicate that consumerism along with small daily choices, such as using reusable cups instead of their disposable counterparts, could play a huge role in climate change. At policy level, no concrete measures to curb the superfluous consumption of paper cups, as well as other single-use plastic items that are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, have materialised. Furthermore, it appears that decision- and policy-makers tend to step in to curtail wasteful and polluting practices only when environmental problems have started to generate widespread concern, instead of undertaking preventative policy measures.

一次性纸杯包含典型的一次性塑料物品，因为它们的内部衬有一层薄塑料涂层以防水。它们在世界范围内的消耗量惊人，仅英国每天就消耗约700万杯，因此每年产生约30,000吨纸杯废物。与普遍的看法相反，英国目前不到400个纸杯中的1个被回收，这与废物等级和欧盟委员会雄心勃勃的“循环经济行动计划”形成鲜明对比。纸杯通常最终会进入垃圾掩埋场，甚至被不当处置，从而造成（微）塑料废物，并有可能污染世界海洋。后者的含义尚不完全清楚，不能通过现有的生命周期影响评估方法进行量化。通过使用生命周期评估方法，发现英国每年因纸杯消费而产生的碳足迹为75 kt二氧化碳当量，这与制造11,500辆中型乘用车相似。在全球范围内，发现他们的环境足迹与大约150万欧洲普通居民相当，这表明一次性塑料制品问题的性质和程度，纸杯只是一个典型例子。纸杯回收可以减少多达40％的环境足迹，而改用可重复使用的杯子似乎在环境上更具可持续性，碳排放量减少了三倍，是马耳他年度碳足迹的两倍以上。结果表明，消费主义以及每日的小选择，例如使用可重复使用的杯子而不是一次性杯子，可能在气候变化中发挥巨大作用。在政策一级，没有任何具体措施可以遏制纸杯以及其他越来越普遍使用的一次性塑料制品的多余消费。此外，似乎只有在环境问题开始引起广泛关注时，决策者和政策制定者才倾向于介入以减少浪费和污染的做法，而不是采取预防性政策措施。