INDOOR SIGNAGE

Setting up cup recycling in shopping centres

Shopping centres can play a crucial role given they’re often locations where people both buy and dispose of coffee cups. If you plan to involve a local shopping centre in your cup recycling campaign, this section shows you how.

Why recycle coffee cups?

Here’s how you can explain to stakeholders at the shopping centre why it’s important to recycle coffee cups:

1. Coffee cups have a value: The virgin paper on the outside of the cup is of a very high quality and can be turned into great products like Designer shopping bags or packaging for electronic items. The cost per tonne of cups has been guaranteed so there’s demand from the waste industry to collect cups. Part of the challenge is getting those cups from the people who drink them, to the three plants in the UK that recycle them, which is where you come in.

2. Reduce contamination in your recycling bins: Coffee cups and the milky liquid and tea bags they often contain, contaminate other recycling meaning that whole batches can be spoilt and possibly end up in landfill or being burnt. By asking people to separate out their cups you can improve the quality of your dry mixed recycling and increase your recycling rates.

3. Enhance your reputation and share good practice: Our trial in Leeds shows 95% of people think cups should be recycled and they would recycle more if there were more cup bins around. Shopping centres have the opportunity to reach the right audience with the message that cups can be recycled – and you can show you’re leading on best practice at the same time.