Step 3 : Communicate to engage your audience

Your audience should know:

• Why you are recycling cups. Inform your audiences about what the issue is with coffee cups and how many are used daily in the UK or even better, in your chosen project area. Updating them with how many cups have been recycled each week or month will encourage them too!

• That coffee cups only get recycled when placed in the coffee cup recycling bins, after separating the lid and disposing of any leftover liquid. Contamination is one of the biggest challenges that your project will face.

• What happens to the coffee cups when they are recycled? Can you provide some examples of products made from recycled cups to show people the value of recycled cups?

Bear in mind that the level of public understanding on this issue is quite low – in a 2019 survey conducted by Hubbub, 71% of people didn’t know that cups needed to go in their own recycling bin to be recycled.

However, there is an appetite to do the right thing - 95% of people surveyed thought that cups should be able to be recycled.