FAQ Plastic Free Cups

Leetha cups are:

Leetha cups are certified by:

Yes. Leetha has been approved by CPCB and also holds the CIPET certification. 

Leetha holds the following certificates conforming to international standards including:

Check out the link

Please see the link

Check out this video. 

Yes, Leetha cups are 100% recyclable. It can be directly fed into a pulper to make recycled paper.

Specialized machinery is required to separate film from the cup. Unfortunately, there are very few of these in the world and almost 90% of used paper cups that end up in landfills and are not recycled. That means LDPE cups cannot be recycled by most paper mills.

Sealing Test

Only heat can be used to seal plastic materials.Both the substrates should have similar molecular properties. As such, a PE-lined cup can easily be heat sealed with a plastic film, whereas a plastic-free cup will not heat seal with a plastic film.

A demonstration of this test can be viewed here.

Burning Test

A plastic-lined cup, when burned, would emit an unpleasing smell, whereas a plastic-free cup would emit the natural smell of burning paper or wood.

Rub Test 

Gently rub off the cellulose by applying a bit of moisture and exposing the plastic lining; a plastic-free cup will not have this lining.

Here is a demonstration of this test.

Acid Test. 

Acid will not dissolve plastics.

For acid testing methods, please check the

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRy5PEmUfaE&t=5s

Leetha Dispersion coating dissolves in dicloromethane , It is widely used to find out to find fake 

NaOH is a wiidely used chemical In paper Industry for waste paper recycling and de-inking process , Leetha Dispersion coating gets dissolved in NaOH , NaOH is a chemical used in Soap as well , 

Most paper cups labelled as recyclable or compostable contain either a plastic, PLA, or PBS liner.

Plastic-coated cups (PE coated) are not compostable and cannot be easily recycled, while PLA, PBS, PBAT, or green PE-lined cups are biodegradable (under controlled conditions) and are rarely recycled. In most cases, they end up in landfills or are washed into waterbodies.

Leetha Bio Cups do not contain the typical plastic or PLA liner and are:

Yes, Leetha Bio Cups are biodegradable. As per ASTM D 5511 and ASTM 6400 Standard tests conducted on the cups by Intertek and ISO 17088, Leetha Bio Cups are biodegradable in an industrial composter and even in a home compost. That means it will be eaten up by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Certificates and test studies are available and could be sent on request.

Yes, you can check out various videos on the video page.

Link Below 

Video 

A simple test would prove the genuineness of the Leetha Cup (of course there could be fake ones claiming to be Bio Cups). Please check the video page or check the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgoSdnUKaiM&t=4s

 

Just bury it in your backyard, in a compost pile, or wherever you have moist Soil, and check after 30 to 60 days. You will hardly find any residue. As per international standards, a product is termed "biodegradable" if it degrades up to 90 percent in 6 months.

https://youtu.be/jTQ8xNQBJm4

Yes, Leetha Bio Cups are food safe, its FDA certified and passes specific migration test TUV

yes , it does , as per Test Specification(s) / Regulation(s): With reference to Council of Europe Resolution AP (2002) 1/Policy 

Statement on paper and board materials and articles intended to come into contact with / Regulation (EC) 

No. 1935/2004) please check  Cerificates page

YES ,..AS PER US FDA 21 CFR 178.3800

       US FDA 21 CFR 175.300

       US FDA 21 CFR 176.170

Yes please check  Cerificates page

Yes its PFAS free please check  Cerificates page

Yes, Leetha Bio Cups are microwave safe, and migration tests conducted by internationally accredited agencies certify the same.please check  Cerificates page

It can withstand temperatures of up to 100 degrees Celsius (typically, coffee is served at 70 degrees).

Yes. It is home compostable and doesn't require an industrial composting facility. These cups are fully biodegradable in an open landfill as per ASTM 6400 by Intertek. The testing process is done with aerobic bacteria. (Aerobic bacteria are bacteria that use oxygen as an electron acceptor to break down organic compounds.) Our cups' biodegradation level was 91.85% on the 75th day.

It was also subjected to anaerobic bacteria testing according to ASTM D 5511 (anaerobic bacteria are bacteria that do not use oxygen as an electron acceptor to break down organic compounds; they generally use nitrates, iron sulfate, etc.). Our cups' biodegradation level was 74.8% on the 28th day and 94.01% on the 52nd day.

The amount of energy required to run the industrial composting facility and the amount of carbon footprint generated during the biodegrading process in an industrial composter are greater than the energy required to manufacture LDPE-coated paper. That means running an industrial composter is just green washing, and recycling or natural biodegradation is the ideal solution.

The coating thickness is under 2-3 grammes per square meter. This implies that the coating is less than 0.6 percent of a standard coffee cup.

Plastic film is usually laminated at 15 to 20 grammes per square meter.

Most plastics and biodegradable plastics are complicated molecules; their molecular length and molecular weight are very high. Our dispersion coating molecule has a very low molecular length and weight, which makes it easier for microbes to feed on.

This is similar to the natural rubber molecule (polyisoprene C5-H8), which is naturally degradable. The water-based coating is made of pure acrylic dispersion.

Yes Leetha cups are free of polyolefin or any ethylene based water dispersion 

All that is biodegradable is not compostable, but all that is compostable is biodegradable as well. A product is termed biodegradable if it can be broken down in controlled conditions, like in industrial composting sites where a required quantity of heat (58 degrees centigrade) and moisture are continuously maintained.

Composting happens in natural weather conditions, like in a natural compost pile. 

Leetha has mastered the technology of achieving perfect barrier proofing and heat sealability with just 2 grammes of coating. Other dispersion-coated (aqueous-coated) cups mostly have a minimum 6–12 gramme coating that is almost like a film.

Yes, these paper cups are "plastic-free," as they are made of cellulose and coated with acrylic.

However "Plastic free" is relativly and ambiguous term ,even trees have polymers . polymers  are complex molecules . celulose and lignin in trees are considered a polymer . almost all paper products might contain traces of plastics , the inks thats used in printing contain polymers . acrylic binders are used in the manufacture of paper boards . so any paper product even newspaper will have traces of plastics and cannot be termed as plastic free . Leetha cups does not contain complex polymers it is coated with relativly lighter molecules 

According to the PWM regulation (notification published in the Gazette of India, Part II, Section-3, Subsection (i)), New Delhi, 18th March 2016, as amended rules 2022), "plastic" means a material that contains as an essential ingredient a high polymer such as polyethylene terephthalate, high density polyethylene, vinyl, low density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene resins, and multi-materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene . Leetha cups does not contain any of the above complex molecules 


PLEASE CONTACT US FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: sales@leetha.com