Cangkir kertas

 

Sejarah[sunting]

Paper cups have been documented in imperial China, where paper was invented by 2nd century BC.^[5] Paper cups were known as chih pei and were used for the serving of tea.^[6] Mereka dibuat dalam berbagai ukuran dan warna, dan dihiasi dengan desain dekoratif. Bukti tekstual cangkir kertas muncul dalam deskripsi harta benda keluarga Yu, from the city of Hangzhou.^[6]

Gelas kertas modern dikembangkan pada abad ke-20. Pada awal abad ke-20, berbagi gelas atau gayung di sumber air seperti keran sekolah atau tong air di kereta adalah hal yang lumrah. Penggunaan bersama ini menyebabkan masalah kesehatan masyarakat. Salah satu penyelidikan penting dalam penggunaannya adalah penelitian oleh Alvin Davison, biology professor at Lafayette College, diterbitkan dengan judul yang sensasional “Kematian di Piala Minum Sekolah” in Technical World Magazine in August 1908, based on research carried out in Easton, Pennsylvania‘s public schools. Artikel tersebut dicetak ulang dan didistribusikan oleh Dewan Kesehatan Negara Bagian Massachusetts pada bulan November 1909.^[7]

Berdasarkan kekhawatiran tersebut, dan sebagai barang kertas (terutama setelahnya 1908 penemuan Piala Dixie) menjadi tersedia secara murah dan bersih, larangan lokal diberlakukan pada cangkir untuk digunakan bersama. One of the first railway companies to use disposable paper cups was the Lackawanna Railroad, yang mulai menggunakannya 1909. Oleh 1917, kaca umum telah hilang dari gerbong kereta api, diganti dengan gelas kertas bahkan di yurisdiksi di mana kacamata umum belum dilarang.^[8]

Gelas kertas juga digunakan di rumah sakit karena alasan kesehatan. Di dalam 1942 Massachusetts State College menemukan dalam sebuah penelitian bahwa biaya penggunaan kacamata yang bisa dicuci, digunakan kembali setelah dibersihkan, adalah 1.6 kali lipat biaya penggunaan cangkir kertas sekali pakai.^[9] Studi-studi ini, serta pengurangan risiko infeksi silang, mendorong penggunaan cangkir kertas di rumah sakit.

Dixie cups[sunting]

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 “Kup Kesehatan”, 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, Pennsylvania. Atop the factory was a large water tank in the shape of a cup.^[10]

Di dalam 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. Di dalam 1983, production moved to a modern factory in Forks, Pennsylvania. 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.

Di dalam 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.

Pembuatan[sunting]

The base paper for paper cups are called “lemari” and are made on special multi-ply paper machines and have a barrier coating for waterproofing. The paper needs high stiffness and strong wet sizing. The cup board grades have a special design for the cup manufacturing processes. Proses pembentukan gulungan mulut memerlukan sifat pemanjangan papan dan lapisan plastik yang baik. A well formed mouth roll provides good stiffness and handling properties in the cup. The basis weights of the cup boards are 170–350 g/m².^[12]

Untuk memenuhi persyaratan kebersihan, gelas kertas umumnya dibuat dari bahan perawan (tidak didaur ulang) bahan.^{[citation needed]} The one exception to this rule is when the paper cup features an extra insulating layer for heat retention, yang tidak pernah bersentuhan dengan minuman, such as a corrugated layer wrapped round a single-wall cup.

Tahan air[sunting]

Semula, gelas kertas untuk minuman panas direkatkan dan dibuat kedap air dengan menjatuhkan sedikit tanah liat ke dasar cangkir, dan kemudian berputar dengan kecepatan tinggi sehingga tanah liat akan naik ke dinding cangkir, membuat kertas tersebut kedap air. Namun, hal ini mengakibatkan minuman berbau dan berasa seperti karton.

Cangkir untuk minuman dingin tidak dapat diperlakukan dengan cara yang sama, sebagai bentuk kondensasi di luar, lalu meresap ke dalam papan, membuat cangkir tidak stabil. Untuk mengatasi hal ini, produsen cangkir mengembangkan teknik penyemprotan bagian dalam dan luar cangkir dengan lilin. Clay- and wax-coated cups disappeared with the invention of polietilen (PE)-cangkir berlapis; proses ini menutupi permukaan papan dengan lapisan PE yang sangat tipis, membuat papan kedap air dan mengelas jahitannya menjadi satu.

Mencetak pada cangkir kertas[sunting]

Awalnya paper cup dicetak menggunakan balok karet yang dipasang pada silinder, dengan silinder yang berbeda untuk setiap warna. Pendaftaran berbagai warna sangat sulit, but later flexography plates became available and with the use of mounting systems it became easier to register across the colours, memungkinkan desain yang lebih kompleks. Pencetakan flexographic telah menjadi pilihan ideal untuk jangka panjang dan produsen umumnya menggunakan metode ini ketika memproduksi lebih dari satu juta cangkir. Machines such as Comexi are used for this, yang telah disesuaikan untuk mengambil gulungan ekstra besar yang dibutuhkan oleh produsen cangkir kertas. Ink technology has also changed and where solvent-based inks were being used, tinta berbahan dasar air malah digunakan. Salah satu efek samping dari tinta berbahan dasar pelarut adalah cangkir minuman panas khususnya dapat berbau pelarut, sedangkan tinta berbahan dasar air telah menghilangkan masalah ini. Other methods of printing have been used for short runs such as offset printing, which can vary from anything from 10,000 ke 100,000 cangkir. Tinta cetak offset juga telah dikembangkan meskipun di masa lalu berbasis pelarut, the latest soya-based inks have reduced the danger of cups smelling. The latest development is Direct-printing, yang memungkinkan pencetakan dalam jumlah yang sangat kecil, biasanya dari 1,000 cangkir, and is used by companies including The Paper Cup Company offering small quantities in short lead times. Rotogravure can also be used, tapi ini sangat mahal dan biasanya hanya digunakan untuk barang-barang yang memerlukan pencetakan berkualitas sangat tinggi seperti wadah es krim.

Environmental impact[sunting]

Recycling[sunting]

Most paper cups are designed for a single use and then disposal. Very little recycled paper is used to make paper cups because of contamination concerns and regulations. Since most paper cups are coated with plastic (polietilen), 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, atau, 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]

Kertas vs plastik[sunting]

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

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

Asam polilaktat (PLA) is a biodegradable bio-plastic coating used on some paper cups. PLA is a renewable resource and is certified compostable, yang berarti ketika terurai, itu tidak meninggalkan residu beracun.^[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[sunting]

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, bahan, production and shipping.^[21]

Habitat-loss trees used[sunting]

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. in 2006, using 4 billion US gallons (15,000,000 m³) 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?]}

Tutup[sunting]

Gelas kertas mungkin memiliki berbagai jenis tutup. The paper cups that are used as containers for yogurt, Misalnya, umumnya memiliki dua jenis tutup: a plastic press-on, resealable, lid used for large “ukuran keluarga” kontainer, 250–1.000 ml (8–30 ons cairan AS), 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 “porsi tunggal” kontainer, 150–200 ml (5–7 ons cairan AS).^[24]

Minuman panas yang dijual dalam cangkir kertas mungkin dilengkapi dengan tutup plastik, untuk menjaga minuman tetap panas dan mencegah tumpah. These lids have a hole through which the drink can be sipped. Tutup plastik dapat memiliki banyak fitur termasuk tab yang bisa dikupas, dinding yang ditinggikan untuk melindungi busa minuman panas gourmet dan teks timbul.^[25] Di dalam 2008, Starbucks introduced shaped plastic “tongkat percikan” untuk menutup lubang tersebut, di beberapa toko mereka, setelah pelanggan mengeluh tentang kopi panas yang terciprat ke dalamnya.^[26][27]