The recycling plant of paper manufacturer James Cropper appeared on BBC One’s War on Waste documentary.

James Cropper’s £5m-Cumbrian reclaimed fibre plant was opened in 2013 and has technology capable of recycling millions of disposable coffee cups into paper for luxury brands. It separates plastic from pulp in the cups leaving the pulp for use in high-quality paper. It recycles more than 10 million cups a week.

In February this year, James Cropper signed deal and began a trial with McDonalds to recycle 100 million coffee cups a year and turn them into paper. McDonalds has installed collection stations in 150 of its 1,250 restaurants for empty coffee cups to be sent to the plant.

A spokesperson from James Cropper said: “The post-consumer waste project is in its early stages and a number of trials are being run to monitor and assess the quality of the incoming material.

“As a member of the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG), we’re working closely with organisations across the entire paper cup supply chain to secure workable and sustainable solutions to reclaim the high-quality fibre in used paper cups.”

In order to make takeaway coffee cups waterproof, companies fuse them with polyethylene, a material that cannot be separated in a standard recycling mill, hence making recycling impossible.

According to the show, hardly any of the 2.5 billion coffee cups thrown away a year are recycled, even though many people put them in recycling bins thinking they can be. In James Cropper’s plant, 90% of cup waste is converted into FSC certified fibre for paper production and upcycled.