HONEST™ is a range of paper cups and packaging designed around three principles: True, Simple, and Responsible. It exists to cut through the noise around sustainability claims and give people clear, honest information about the products they use and how to dispose of them correctly.

Every paper hot cup needs a liquid sealing layer to hold drinks without leaking. Traditional cups use a plastic lining — either PE (polyethylene) or PLA (polylactic acid) — bonded to the inside of the cup.

Aqueous coating takes a different approach. Instead of a separate plastic layer, it's applied more like an ink or paint, soaking into the paper fibres. This means less polymer overall, and a product that works more flexibly across recycling and composting waste streams.

No — and we won't claim they are. Aqueous cups still contain a small amount of polymers. There is no fully plastic-free disposable paper cup that performs as a hot drinks cup today.

What sets HONEST™ apart is that we use significantly less polymer than PE or PLA-lined alternatives, and we're transparent about it. Calling a product plastic-free when it isn't doesn't help anyone make better decisions.

Yes — but with an important caveat. Paper cups can't be recycled through standard kerbside collection in most of the UK because they require specialist processing to separate the coating from the paper fibre.

HONEST™ cups can be recycled when sent to a specialist cup recycling facility, or through on-site collection schemes. If you're a business, look into cup recycling programmes that collect used cups directly.

Yes. HONEST™ aqueous cups are both home compostable and commercially compostable. If they end up in landfill, they will also naturally break down over time — unlike PE or PLA-lined alternatives.

That said, we always encourage correct disposal first. If a composting stream is available to you, that's the best outcome for the cup.

PE (polyethylene) is the traditional fossil-fuel-based plastic lining. It's the most widely used and best supported by existing recycling infrastructure.

PLA (polylactic acid) is a plant-based alternative, often made from corn or sugarcane. It's designed for industrial composting, but requires the right facility to break down correctly.

Aqueous uses a dispersion coating integrated into the paper fibres. It contains less polymer, works across recycling, home composting, and commercial composting streams, and naturally breaks down in landfill. No single material is perfect — what matters is using the right one for your waste stream.

Not usually. Most household recycling collections in the UK aren't set up to handle paper cups, regardless of the lining. Cups are typically removed at sorting facilities before they can be processed.

The best options are specialist cup collection schemes, on-site recycling points, or home composting. Check our disposal guide for more detail on what's available near you.

Because waste infrastructure is managed at a local authority level, and not every council has invested in the same facilities. What gets recycled in one postcode may go to landfill in another.

This is one of the core problems HONEST™ was designed to address — not by pretending the infrastructure exists, but by being clear about what does and doesn't work today, and helping customers make better choices within real-world constraints.