Can Tim Horton's Coffee Cups Be Recycled

[Kilgore Trout]

Last month I read an article somewhere about recycling mistakes consumers make with their blue bins, it was part of a public awareness blitz the City of Toronto recycling was on last month.
Anyway, one of the things the article said was stop putting Tim Horton's and Starbucks type coffee cups in recycling bins because they can't be recycled because it's not possible to separate the plastic inner liner of the cups from the paper component.

But yesterday when I was at Tim Horton's I saw a bin on it with a sign that said "place your empty cups and other recyclables here".
So basically Tim Horton's claims their coffee cups can be recycled while the City of Toronto says they can't.
Who is telling the truth?

 

[Keebler Elf]

It depends on the municipality. Most have different recycling rules. But everything I've read states that Tim Hortons cups are NOT recyclable in the GTA area.

Tims may do their own in-house recycling, but I doubt it. The city should come down on them for false advertising if their signs are leading people to believe the cups are recyclable when their not. Ultimately Toronto pays for it as people think they can recycle them at home if they can recycle them in the store.

Tims is actually a somewhat shady organization in other ways too. They took away many/most of the garbage bins because they didn't like how much they were spending on trash removal. So now most drive thrus are a dump with garbage all over the place.

 

[james t kirk]

They are not recyclable.

I just read that recently as well and it was surprising to me.

Virtually every waste bin I see in the mall or fast food restaurants are all mixed waste. No-one recycles properly and every bin is just used as a garbage bin. I suspect that Restaurants simply toss it all into the waste bin out back and let the Tony Sopranos of the world cope with it.

 

[Ceiling Cat]

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2015-2016/coffee-cups

 

[Moparz]

I'm not certain about the "plastic lined" cups but they were wax lined at one time. New cup stampings from the press were bailed then shipped by truck and rail to a paper mill in Ransom Pennsylvania for recycle. Upon examination of one of those bails I was able to retrieve a muffin and 2 coffees from new roll up the rim scraps.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

The link provided by Ceiling Cat tells the story here.
Tim Horton's and Starbucks coffee cups can be recycled; but, in most jurisdictions they are not actually recycled because it's too expensive to separate the plastic from the paper in the cups.

According to the video both Starbucks and Tim Hortons claim to hire a private company to come in and do their coffee cup recycling; but, in reality, those claims are totally bogus because the stores staked out by Marketplace just send their used coffee cups in with regular garbage to be taken to landfill sites.
In the video Starbucks sends in security to get rid of reporters asking inconvenient questions that Starbucks executives don't want to answer.

In the end the recycling claims made by Tim's and Starbucks are nothing more than public relations BS.
Tim's and Starbucks are aware that customers think recycling used cups is important so they provide "fictional" recycling bins to make customers feel good before used cups get sent to landfill sites.

 

[Insidious Von]

Tim's and Starbucks aren't even the worst offenders.

That title belongs to Nespresso, Keuring and any other company that makes single serving pod coffee makers. They are not recyclable and are becoming landfill nightmares. Which makes George Clooney look like a hypocritical, money grubbing asshole.

http://realcup.com/en-ca/truth-single-serve-coffee-will-make-cringe/

 

[whynot888]

Your not suppose to because they have a metal ring at the bottom of the cup

 

[Jasmine Raine]

Tim's and Starbucks aren't even the worst offenders.

That title belongs to Nespresso, Keuring and any other company that makes single serving pod coffee makers. They are not recyclable and are becoming landfill nightmares. Which makes George Clooney look like a hypocritical, money grubbing asshole.

http://realcup.com/en-ca/truth-single-serve-coffee-will-make-cringe/

The problem again is with the people. People can separate it. Just like taking paper labels off their glass bottles.

Personally, I keep the coffee grounds from my K-cups and use in my garden. I am able to separate my cups and recycle the plastic, and re-use the organic waste myself.

 

[Companions]

My first job ever was at Tim Hortons (for 4 days, I got fired for trying to unionize - this is why I work for myself haha). The recycling and garbage went the same place. They had a separate opening for people to use but they dumped into the same bin that went straight to the garbage. There was definitely no recycling going on.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

My first job ever was at Tim Hortons (for 4 days, I got fired for trying to unionize - this is why I work for myself haha). The recycling and garbage went the same place. They had a separate opening for people to use but they dumped into the same bin that went straight to the garbage. There was definitely no recycling going on.

3G Capital, the private equity firm that bought out Tim Horton's a year or so ago, has a reputation for being the most relentless cost cutting company out there; so, they don't seem like the type of company that would pay a private recycling firm to recycle their coffee cups for them.
Zero sum accounting won't allow for that. But, creating a fictional, feel good, story line that allows consumers to feel like Tim Hortons is recycling coffee cups, well, that's just good business.

3G has already ruffled a lot of feathers by eliminating hundreds of clerical and management jobs at Tim Horton's head office in Oakville, and they have franchisees all over North America furious with them because costs that used to be paid for by the old Tim Horton's management are now being dumped on franchisees to pay for, thus reducing store profits.

 

[Keebler Elf]

The coffee cups thing goes way back, long before 3G Capital bought them.

Frankly it's a bit surprising Tim Hortons falsely advertising recycling hasn't gone viral. An iconic Canadian company blatantly lying to the public. Shame.

 

[Born2Star]

It doesn't matter. It got mixed back with garbage anyway at the end. The landfill business has set quota with the city and when the weight is not enough recycle stuff go back anyway. It's a business.