Please complete your profile to unlock commenting and other important features.

Please select your date of birth for special perks on your birthday. Your username will be your unique profile link and will be publicly used in comments.
Narcity Pro

This is a Pro feature.

Time to level up your local game with Narcity Pro.

Pro

$5/month

$40/year

  • Everything in the Free plan
  • Ad-free reading and browsing
  • Unlimited access to all content including AI summaries
  • Directly support our local and national reporting and become a Patron
  • Cancel anytime.
For Pro members only Pro
Summary

Tim Hortons Is Testing New Cups For Hot Drinks In Canada That Are Recyclable & Compostable

And they're trialling artificial intelligence waste bins, too!

Senior Writer

The Tim Hortons cups you're used to aren't actually changing colour, but they could be getting a whole lot more green soon.

The Canadian coffee chain is launching a trial of its newly designed hot beverage cup which is made with up to 20% post-consumer recycled content and is both compostable and recyclable.

With this new design, more of the cup's paper fibre can be recovered in the repulping process and that could lead to more recycling programs across the country accepting Tims cups. Right now, hot beverage cups from Tims can only be recycled in B.C. and some municipalities in other provinces.

The recyclable and compostable cups will be tested at select Tims locations in Vancouver starting in January 2022.

To try and increase recycling at locations in Canada, the coffee chain is also testing out AI-assisted waste bins that will scan items and tell people whether they should be recycled, composted or put in the garbage. The tech will be at locations in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia by the end of the year.

Before this, Tims has launched changes to other items including making paper food wrappers that are recyclable, swapping plastic straws for paper ones and using recyclable sleeves instead of double cups.

Starbucks has also switched to paper straws and introduced strawless lids for iced drinks.

Explore this list   👀

    • Senior Writer

      Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

    Canadians will be able to get Canadian Tire Money with their Tim Hortons orders soon

    Here's what you need to know about this Canadian collab! 🇨🇦☕

    I tried Canada's 'best' fast food coffees and Canadians might not agree with my ranking

    Whether you love or hate Tim Hortons, you probably won't like this. ☕

    The Marineland from your childhood is dead: Inside the grim reality of what's left behind

    Recent drone footage from the semi-abandoned site shows the animals who've been left behind.