Costa plan to recycle 500m coffee cups a year by 2020
The UK’s biggest coffee chain, Costa, plan on becoming the first company to help curb unnecessary waste by promising to recycle the equivalent of its outgoing coffee cups by 2020.
Such a Waste for Business
Despite often being marked as recyclable, the vast majority of coffee cups end up on landfill due to the plastic lining used to make them waterproof, as this is difficult to remove, creating unrewarded work for waste collectors.
They are planning to achieve this monumental feat by incentivising waste companies to collect and recycle cups at £70 per tonne, which they’ve estimated will lead to 100 million cups being recycled in year 1 of their goal, a huge difference from the current 14 million being recycled.
499,999,999 Costa Cups to go this year!
By 2020, their plan is estimated to aid the recycling of 500 million cups a year, which adds up to 1/5 of the annual coffee cups used in the UK. Commenting on the announcement, Therese Coffey, Environment Minister said: “Congratulations Costa on taking this significant step to help coffee lovers do the right thing and increase recycling. We all have a responsibility to our environment and this is a significant step by a British business which should dramatically increase the number of disposable coffee cups we recycle in this country.”
Costa have a history of trying to reduce the number of cups going to landfills. They’ve already introduced a 25p discount to customers using reusable cups and have been pushing for other coffee chains to enforce similar rules and make a change.
Dominic Paul, managing director of Costa said about their goal: “100m cups will be recycled this year alone following our announcement, and if the nation’s other coffee chains sign up, there is no reason why all takeaway cups could not be recycled by as early as 2020.”
More Business Recycling
Other companies have also started help change the way coffee cups are disposed of, including Starbucks, who have pledged £7m to develop a “fully recyclable cup” following pressure from campaigners, and Waitrose, who have pledged to phase out disposable coffee cups from its stores by autumn.