كوب الورق

 

تاريخ[يحرر]

تم توثيق الأكواب الورقية في الصين الإمبراطورية, حيث تم اختراع الورق بحلول القرن الثاني قبل الميلاد.^[5] عرفت الأكواب الورقية باسم تشيه باي وكانت تستخدم لتقديم الشاي.^[6] تم بناؤها بأحجام وألوان مختلفة, وتم تزيينها بالتصاميم الزخرفية. تظهر الأدلة النصية للأكواب الورقية في وصف ممتلكات عائلة يو, من مدينة هانغتشو.^[6]

تم تطوير الكوب الورقي الحديث في القرن العشرين. في أوائل القرن العشرين, كان من الشائع مشاركة الكؤوس أو الغطاسات في مصادر المياه مثل صنابير المدارس أو براميل المياه في القطارات. تسبب هذا الاستخدام المشترك في مخاوف تتعلق بالصحة العامة. إحدى التحقيقات البارزة في استخدامها كانت الدراسة التي أجراها ألفين دافيسون, أستاذ علم الأحياء في كلية لافاييت, نشرت مع العنوان المثير “الموت في أكواب الشرب المدرسية” في مجلة العالم التقني في أغسطس 1908, بناء على الأبحاث التي أجريت في ايستون, بنسلفانياالمدارس العامة. أعيد طبع المقال وتوزيعه من قبل مجلس الصحة بولاية ماساتشوستس في نوفمبر 1909.^[7]

وبناء على هذه المخاوف, وكمنتجات ورقية (خاصة بعد 1908 اختراع كأس ديكسي) أصبحت رخيصة الثمن ومتوفرة بشكل نظيف, تم تمرير الحظر المحلي على كأس الاستخدام المشترك. كانت شركة السكك الحديدية من أوائل شركات السكك الحديدية التي استخدمت الأكواب الورقية التي تستخدم لمرة واحدة سكة حديد لاكاوانا, الذي بدأ استخدامها في 1909. بواسطة 1917, اختفى الزجاج العام من عربات السكك الحديدية, تم استبدالها بالأكواب الورقية حتى في الولايات القضائية التي لم يتم فيها حظر النظارات العامة بعد.^[8]

تُستخدم الأكواب الورقية أيضًا في المستشفيات لأسباب صحية. في 1942 وجدت كلية ولاية ماساتشوستس في إحدى الدراسات أن تكلفة استخدام النظارات القابلة للغسل, يعاد استخدامها بعد تعقيمها, كان 1.6 أضعاف تكلفة استخدام الأكواب الورقية ذات الخدمة الواحدة.^[9] هذه الدراسات, وكذلك تقليل خطر انتقال العدوى, تشجيع استخدام الأكواب الورقية في المستشفيات.

Dixie cups[يحرر]

Dixie Cup is the brand name for a line of disposable paper cups that were first developed in the United States in 1907 by Lawrence Luellen, a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts, who was concerned about germs being spread by people sharing glasses or dippers at public supplies of drinking water. Luellen developed an ice-cooled water-vending machine with disposable cups,^[7] and with another Bostonian, Hugh Moore, embarked on an advertising campaign to educate the public and to market his machine, principally to railroad companies. Professor Davison’s study was instrumental in abolishing the public glass and opening the door for the paper cup. Soon, the devices, which would dispense cool water for one cent, became standard equipment on trains.

The Dixie Cup was first called “كوب الصحة”, but from 1919 it was named after a line of dolls made by Alfred Schindler’s Dixie Doll Company in New York. Success led the company, which had existed under a variety of names, to call itself the Dixie Cup Corporation and move to a factory in Wilson, بنسلفانيا. Atop the factory was a large water tank in the shape of a cup.^[10]

في 1957, Dixie merged with the American Can Company. The James River Corporation purchased American Can’s paper business in 1982. The assets of James River are now part of Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the second largest privately owned company in the United States. في 1983, production moved to a modern factory in Forks, بنسلفانيا. The original factory in Wilson has sat vacant ever since. The closing of the factory also prompted Conrail to abandon the Easton & Northern railroad branch, of which Dixie Cups was the last major customer.

في 1969, the Dixie Cup logo was created by Saul Bass, a graphic designer known for his motion picture title sequences.

The coupon collector’s problem is sometimes called the Dixie cup problem.

تصنيع[يحرر]

The base paper for paper cups are called “لوحة الكأس” and are made on special multi-ply آلات الورق and have a barrier coating for waterproofing. تحتاج الورقة إلى صلابة عالية وقوية التحجيم الرطب. The cup board grades have a special design for the cup manufacturing processes. تتطلب عملية تشكيل لفة الفم خصائص استطالة جيدة للوحة والطلاء البلاستيكي. A well formed mouth roll provides good stiffness and handling properties in the cup. الأوزان الأساسية لألواح الأكواب هي 170-350 جم/م².^[12]

لتلبية متطلبات النظافة, يتم تصنيع الأكواب الورقية بشكل عام من عذراء (غير المعاد تدويرها) مواد.^{[الاقتباس اللازمة]} The one exception to this rule is when the paper cup features an extra insulating layer for heat retention, الذي لا يتلامس أبدًا مع المشروب, such as a corrugated layer wrapped round a single-wall cup.

العزل المائي[يحرر]

أصلا, تم لصق الأكواب الورقية للمشروبات الساخنة معًا وجعلها مقاومة للماء عن طريق إسقاط كمية صغيرة من الطين في قاع الكوب, ثم يدور بسرعة عالية بحيث ينتقل الطين إلى أعلى جدران الكوب, مما يجعل الورق مقاومًا للماء. لكن, وأدى ذلك إلى رائحة المشروبات وتذوق الورق المقوى.

ولا يمكن معالجة أكواب المشروبات الباردة بنفس الطريقة, كما يتشكل التكثيف من الخارج, ثم ينقع في اللوحة, مما يجعل الكأس غير مستقر. لعلاج هذا, طور مصنعو الأكواب تقنية رش الكوب من الداخل والخارج بالشمع. فخار- واختفت الأكواب المغطاة بالشمع مع اختراع البولي إيثيلين (PE)-أكواب مغلفة; تغطي هذه العملية سطح اللوحة بطبقة رقيقة جدًا من PE, عزل اللوح من الماء ولحام اللحامات معًا.

الطباعة على الأكواب الورقية[يحرر]

Originally paper cups were printed using rubber blocks mounted on cylinders, with a different cylinder for each colour. Registration across different colours was very difficult, but later flexography plates became available and with the use of mounting systems it became easier to register across the colours, allowing for more complex designs. Printing flexographic has become ideal for long runs and manufacturers generally use this method when producing over a million cups. Machines such as Comexi are used for this, which have been adapted to take the extra large reels that are required by paper cup manufacturers. Ink technology has also changed and where solvent-based inks were being used, water-based inks are instead being utilised. One of the side effects of solvent-based inks is that hot drink cups in particular can smell of solvent, whereas water-based inks have eliminated this problem. Other methods of printing have been used for short runs such as offset printing, which can vary from anything from 10,000 ل 100,000 أكواب. Offset printing inks have also been developed and although in the past these were solvent based, the latest soya-based inks have reduced the danger of cups smelling. The latest development is Direct-printing, which allows printing on very small quantities, typically from 1,000 أكواب, and is used by companies including The Paper Cup Company offering small quantities in short lead times. Rotogravure can also be used, but this is extremely expensive and is normally only utilised for items requiring extremely high quality printing like ice cream containers.

Environmental impact[يحرر]

Recycling[يحرر]

Most paper cups are designed for a single use and then disposal. Very little الورق المعاد تدويره is used to make paper cups because of contamination concerns and regulations. Since most paper cups are coated with plastic (البولي إيثيلين), then both composting and recycling of paper cups is uncommon because of the difficulty in separating the polyethylene in the recycling process of said cups. As of 2016, there are only two facilities in the UK able to properly recycle PE-coated cups; in the absence of such facilities, the cups are taken to landfill, أو, at best, incinerated.

A UK-based business group James Cropper have developed the world’s first facility for the effective recycling of the estimated 2.5 billion paper coffee cups used and disposed of by British businesses each year, and have become one of 14 international companies to formally join the Paper Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG).

James Cropper’s Reclaimed Fibre Facility was opened by HM The Queen in July 2013, and recovers both the plastic and paper from the cups; ensuring nothing is wasted from the recycling process.^[13] Although paper cups are made from renewable resources (wood chips 95% by weight), paper products in a landfill might not decompose, or can release methane, if decomposed anaerobically.

A Newport Beach, CA company, Smart Planet Technologies has developed a process for modifying the polyethylene coating on paper cups and folding cartons so they are engineered for recyclability. Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA has begun a program to use cups made with this technology to capture and sell the fibers to fund scholarships for their students. ^[14]

The manufacture of paper usually requires inorganic chemicals and creates water effluents. Paper cups may consume more non-renewable resources than cups made of polystyrene foam (whose only significant effluent is pentane).^[15][16]

الورق مقابل البلاستيك[يحرر]

أ life cycle inventory of a comparison of paper vs plastic cups shows environmental effects of both with no clear winner.^[17]

البولي إيثيلين (PE) is a petroleum-based coating on paper cups that can slow down the process of biodegrading of the paper it coats.

حمض بولييلاكتيك (جيش التحرير الشعبى الصينى) هو أ biodegradable bio-plastic coating used on some paper cups. PLA is a renewable resource and is certified compostable, which means that when it biodegrades, it does not leave behind any toxic residues.^[18] PLA-lined cups are thus the only paper cups which can be composted fully. All paper cups can only be recycled at a specialised treatment facility regardless of the lining.^[19]

A number of cities – including Portland, Oregon — have banned XPS foam cups in take-out and fast food restaurants.^[20]

Emissions[يحرر]

A study of one paper coffee cup with sleeve (16 ounce) shows that the CO₂ emissions is about 0.11 kilograms (0.24 lb) per cup with sleeve – including paper from trees, مواد, production and shipping.^[21]

Habitat-loss trees used[يحرر]

The habitat loss from one 16 ounce paper coffee cup with a sleeve is estimated to be 0.09 square meters (0.93 square feet).^{[dubious – discuss][22][unreliable source?]} Over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper coffee cups used by U.S. في 2006, using 4 billion US gallons (15,000,000 م³) of water and resulting in 253 million pounds (115,000,000 kg) of waste. Overall, US Americans use 58% of all paper cups worldwide, amounting to 130 billion cups.^{[13][unreliable source?][23][unreliable source?]}

اغطية[يحرر]

Paper cups may have various types of lids. The paper cups that are used as containers for yogurt, for example, generally have two types of lids: a plastic press-on, resealable, lid used for large “family size” حاويات, 250–1,000 ml (8–30 US fl oz), where not all of the yogurt may be consumed at any one time and thus the ability to re-close the container is required and heat-seal foil lids used for small “single serving” حاويات, 150–200 ml (5–7 US fl oz).^[24]

Hot drinks sold in paper cups may come with a plastic lid, to keep the drink hot and prevent spillage. These lids have a hole through which the drink can be sipped. The plastic lids can have many features including peel back tabs, raised walls to protect the foam of gourmet hot drinks and embossed text.^[25] في 2008, Starbucks introduced shaped plastic “splash sticks” to block the hole, in some of their stores, after customer complaints about hot coffee splashing through it.^[26][27]