In his regular feature, Denis the Dustcart asks if compostable cups are really the green alternative people think.

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Unless you can guarantee they will be treated in an industrial composting plant, they aren’t going to get composted. In which case, they can only become rubbish, since they can’t be recycled – unlike normal takeaway cups, which can go in one of Exeter’s orange banks or at various coffee outlets.

So what we have is a cup that was brought into being – using incredibly energy- and water-intensive processes and using monocultures at the expense of biodiversity – that is going to be used precisely once before being burned or dumped.