  
 
1. Most disposable cups are lined with polyethylene which makes them non recyclable.
2. Over 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured globally every year.
3. Disposable cups that are "compostable" require commercial composting to biodegrade. Compostable and biodegradable paper cups cannot be put into household compost.
4. Every minute over one million disposable cups are discarded to landfill.
5. In the United States alone, 58 billion disposable cups are thrown out annually, with the majority ending up in landfill; that is, 158 disposable cups for every US inhabitant.
6. World paper use has exploded by 400% in the last 40 years. Now nearly 4 billion trees or 35% of the total trees chopped down are used in paper industries on every continent. Globally, we go through about 300 million tons of paper each year. Most of that paper is made from virgin pulp.
7. The 500 billion disposable cups used in the world each year placed end to end could circumnavigate the earth 1,360 times.
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