PAPER CUP

Cleverly constructed from simple materials, the paper cup provides an hygienic container for both hot and cold drinks.Unfortunately it has a plastic coating on the inner surface to make it more watertight. This means that the paper cannot be easily recycled and the cup has to go to a specialist recycling company to have this removed. Unfortunately there are only three of these recyclers in the UK so most cups end up in landfill.

According to the University of Leicester Sustainability website half a trillion paper cups will be manufactured this year and 1,000,000,000 will be thrown away. In the UK 2.5 billion are used every year and that represents 4.756 every minute.

HISTORY

Paper cups were first used in ancient China for tea drinking over 2000 years ago.Their contemporary history starts in 1907 when a Boston lawyer, Laurence Luellen, responded to concern about public health by inventing a water cooler with disposable paper cups. This quickly became a standard item on trains all across America.

MANUFACTURE

The modern paper cup is made from a polythene coated paper which is cut into a curved blank. This is rolled and jointed to make a cone shape and heat sealed onto a circular base. The lip at the top is ‘roll formed’ to give the shape rigidity and provides a thicker surface for drinking. The cup depicted has an outer sleeve of corrugated card, giving grip as well as extra heat insulation. This is made from a curved blank cut from a flat corrugated sheet. The ridges on the front of the cup are upright but angled at the back where the two ends of the sheet are joined.

sources University of Leicester, Wikipedia and the Independent Newspaper

DRAWING

It is perhaps harder than it looks to capture the varying angles of the corrugations and the way they change in the light. These features alter as the shape curves and tapers, making the cup look solid and round. The cap is vacuum formed from shiny black polystyrene which reflects the light and casts dark shadows to define the features.The severe contrasts of the dark and light areas, with their shiny edges, make the lid interesting to draw. 

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