Aarhus in the middle of cleaning streets

Danish city finds way to recycle coffee cups

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EVERY hour in Ireland 22,000 disposable coffee cups get discarded.

That adds up quickly.

In a day it becomes 528,000. In a year a staggering 200 million.

Much of this 3,700 tonnes of waste ends up on our beaches and shoreline where discarded coffee cups are among the top five litter items.

The microplastics they break into end up in our food systems and bloodstreams.

It's led many to believe there must be a better way.

And maybe one Danish city has found it.

In Aarhus, the world's first citywide recyclable cups scheme has saved hundreds of thousands of them from ending up in landfill, stopping pollutants from leaching into the ground and air.