Earlier this year, Starbucks sent 18 truckloads of old paper cups to a paper mill in Wisconsin to prove a point: Contrary to a widespread myth, paper coffee cups can be recycled cost-effectively. The cups–25 million in total, from excess inventory¹ that the coffee chain otherwise would have sent to landfill–were processed at the mill. Then the recycled fiber² was sent to another partner to be incorporated into paperboard for new Starbucks cups.

今年的早些时候，星巴克把18卡车多的旧纸杯送去康斯威星的造纸厂来证明：与广泛流传的谜团相反，咖啡纸杯可以有效回收再利用，成本效益最大化。这些2千5百万个纸杯的积压库存，按照之前，星巴克就会送去垃圾掩埋，现在被送去造纸厂。之后可以回收的纤维被送去另一个供应商做成星巴克新纸杯的纸板。

The pilot project was a way to “demonstrate that a coffee cup can be turned back into a coffee cup,” says Jay Hunsberger, VP of sales for North America from Sustana, the mill that recycled the old cups.

这个试行项目是展示将“咖啡纸杯用于咖啡纸杯”的一种途径。 Sustana旧纸杯回收造纸厂北美地区的销售副总监Jay Hunsberger如是说。

At the mill, the cups were mixed with water and ground into a pulp³ with a seven-foot-tall corkscrew to begin to separate the plastic lining⁴ that helps keep coffee cups from getting soggy.

在造纸厂，这些纸杯充分和水混合，然后用7英尺长的螺丝锥把杯子里面防止纸杯变湿的塑料衬分离。

The fibers⁵ were screened and washed to finish the separation, then made into sheets and sent to WestRock, a packaging company, to be made into paperboard. At a third company, Seda, the board was printed with the Starbucks logo and shaped into new cups.

纤维在检查和清洗以后完成分离，然后被制成纸送去WestRock，一家包装公司，制成纸板。在第三家加工公司Seda纸板会印上星巴克的标志，拗出造型，做成新的纸杯。

“There's a misconception right now in the industry regarding the recyclability of poly-coated paperboard,” says Mike Mueller, senior manager of product marketing⁶ at WestRock.

“对于聚氯乙烯涂层纸板的可回收性，行业内一直存在误解。” WestRock的资深产品市场经理Mike Mueller说。

“I think that's a big reason why that type of packaging isn't accepted for recycling today broadly.” WestRock recently began accepting cups, along with paper food packaging, at eight of its own mills.

“我觉得这就是该包装不能够大批量回收利用的最大障碍。” WestRock的八家自有造纸厂最近开始接受这种杯子，还有纸质的食物包装。

It's commonly thought that it's difficult or expensive to separate the plastic lining from the cups, or that contamination from coffee is an issue.

一般情况下都会认为把杯子中塑料衬分离、或是去除咖啡渍要不就是很难，要不就是很贵。

But it's no more expensive to recycle cups than other paper, Hunsberger says. And whether they are used or not also doesn't matter. Before the pilot with Starbucks, Sustana already regularly recycled other coated food containers like milk cartons.

不过Hunsberger说这并不比回收普通的纸贵，而且不管使用没使用都是一样的。在和星巴克试行这个项目之前，Sustana就已经开始常规回收其他有涂层的纸质承装物像牛奶盒子。

One challenge is the supply–if it's hard for a mill to predict how many cups it will get, it makes it hard to run efficiently⁷. But if a mill knows that it will get a continuous stream of a certain percentage of cups, it's not difficult to handle.

其中一个挑战是供给，对于一个造纸厂来说能够有多少杯子回收利用很难预测，这会增加其有效运作的难度。但是对于造纸厂如果有源源不断固定比例回收杯子，这样就不难运作了。

“The material does behave a little differently, you do modify your process to be able to handle it, but if it is a consistent add into your process, then you can adapt for it and run it”.

“材料的不同确实处理会有些许不同，你需要调整处理流程来适应，但是如果这成为了一个长期处理的材料，你只需要适应就可运作了。”

Seattle, New York City, and D.C. are among a handful of other cities that also recycle cups. The latest city to begin recycling paper coffee cups is Denver, which recently sent its first shipment of two truckloads, or around 88,000 cups, to Sustana.

西雅图、纽约市、华盛顿特区，还有一些其他城市也来回收纸杯。最新一个回收咖啡纸杯城市是丹弗，最近送了两卡车，大约8万8千个纸杯去Sustana。

Starbucks uses 10% recycled paper content in its new cups, and aims to double that by 2022. If the retailer⁸ decided⁹ to source that recycled fiber from its own cups, in the closed loop that it tested in the recent pilot, that might drive more demand for paper mills and local recyclers to accept the cups.

星巴克的新纸杯中有10%用的是回收纸杯做的，目标是在2020年翻番。如果星巴克决定从自己回收纤维纸杯也就是和最新试运行流程一致的货源采够的话，那么会需要更多的造纸厂，和地方回收站来收杯子。

Current paper machine equipment can't make a 100% recycled paper coffee cup yet, but equipment can incorporate more recycled fiber–as much as 40-50%–so Starbucks and other cafes could also aim for more ambitious goals.

目前的纸处理设备，还不能百分百地回收，但是循环利用的纤维能够达到40%到50%，对于星巴克和其他咖啡馆能够把目标设得更加激进。