Costa Coffee pledges to recycle half a billion disposable cups a year – UK

Posted on May 27, 2018 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations

Managing director acknowledges role played by The Independent’s Cut the Cup Waste campaign in highlighting issue of plastic waste from takeaway beverage containers

Source: Costa Coffee pledges to recycle half a billion disposable cups a year

The UK’s largest coffee retailer, Costa Coffee, has committed to recycling half a billion coffee cups a year by 2020 in a landmark act to tackle plastic waste.

The pledge, which amounts to recycling the same volume of cups it puts onto the market, would take a significant chunk out of the 2.5 billion takeaway cups thrown away across the country every year.

Despite often being marked as recyclable, the vast majority of paper coffee cups end up on landfill or being incinerated due to the plastic lining used to make them waterproof.

By paying waste collectors to take coffee cups to specialist facilities, Costa hopes to massively increase the rate at which cups are recycled.