Recyclable Hot Cup Solutions

Consumers are busy. Always on the go, they frequently consume their hot beverages, including coffee and tea, throughout their day. Consumers expect their hot beverage cups to provide consistent, reliable performance. People also want to enjoy the flavor of their hot drinks—they don't want any hint of chemical odor (or taste) that interferes with their enjoyment of the flavor. Although the average hot beverage customer has probably not taken the time to consider the rigorous conditions that hot cups endure, those of us who supply this market understand the numerous environmental stresses that can challenge the performance of the cup.

What happens to the cup after the beverage is gone is just as important. Developing end-of-life solutions to prevent these cups from either ending up in a landfill or turning into litter on the ground is vitally important.

Hot Cup Performance Requirements

Key performance characteristics that need to be incorporated into the design of any hot cup include the following:

Beverage Composition Creates Specific Challenges

Hot beverages usually contain more than just coffee or tea. Milk, creamer, syrup, sugar, and artificial sweeteners are just a few of the additional ingredients that may be added to a hot beverage. Each of these additional ingredients alters the beverage's chemical composition. Each change to the composition of the beverage introduces additional performance challenges for the hot cup.

The Right Coatings Can Improve Production Efficiency

The coating you select for your hot cup solution can have a significant impact on production efficiency. Here are some parameters to consider:

• Sealing performance must be aligned with the type of cup forming equipment and the speeds at which this equipment runs.
• Coating weight impacts drying speeds.
• Coating properties like wet out and film forming characteristics are crucial to ensuring consistent performance throughout the production cycle.

When identifying the most suitable coating for your application, you also need to consider the application weight. A key benefit of using a water-based dispersion is that it contains considerably less material than typical PE film coatings once it has dried.

Our Solution

A polyethylene replacement for paper cups that enables wider recyclability and repulpability for increased circularity.

Michem® Coat 9100 is a heat seal coating for paper that provides water and oil resistance, as well as moderate MVTR. This coating has excellent global food contact compliance, has passed repulpability tests in a variety of countries, and has PTS repulpability certification for a typical hot cup construction.