What is the National Cup Recycling Scheme?

The National Cup Recycling Scheme is the UK’s largest paper cup recycling scheme. Although progress slowed last year during the Coronavirus pandemic it is encouraging to see cup collection and recycling services beginning to resume. The Scheme aims to increase the number of paper cups being recycled by focusing on the infrastructure needed to recycle paper cups. As Scheme Administrator Valpak brings together key industry stakeholders including major retailers, waste management companies and reprocessors. The Scheme is built on the voluntary collaboration of eight major retailers including Costa Coffee, McDonald’s, Pret A Manger, Caffè Nero, Greggs, Burger King, Pure and Lavazza Professional.

How does the Scheme work?

The National Cup Recycling Scheme has now been in place for over three years and provides an open platform for major retailers to work together to drive paper cup recycling in the UK. The Scheme seeks to stimulate cup recycling by offering waste management companies a financial incentive of £70 per tonne of cups collected. This is on top of to the value they receive for the material and is co-funded by the eight member signatories. There are now twenty-five waste collectors offering a paper cup collection service and five UK reprocessors able to accept polyethylene-lined paper cups.  

How are paper cups recycled?

There remains a common misconception that paper cups cannot be recycled because of their plastic lining but this is not the case. Paper cups can be recycled, however, they need to be collected as a separate waste stream before being delivered to the paper mills. The cups are collected from cup recycling points, many of which are in quick-service restaurants, or increasingly in on-the-go locations such as city centres and transport hubs. The cups are then sorted and baled before being taken to one of the five reprocessors that each accept cups.  Paper cups can be transformed into a range of valuable products, including high-quality packaging, greetings cards and even a reusable cup.

How many cups have been recycled?

Tracking how many cups have been recycled is an integral part of the National Cup Recycling Scheme. Every month the paper mills report to Valpak the volume of cups collected and which waste collector they came from. These volumes are then fed into a monthly report which is shared with Scheme members. This monthly report contains data on the volume of cups recycled each month all the way back to the launch of the Scheme in 2018, enabling us to track cup recycling progress. From a standing start the National Cup Recycling Scheme has now recycled over 160 million cups!

There are many ways to get involved with the National Cup Recycling Scheme, whether you want to join the collaboration, or find out how your business can setup cup recycling. New members are welcome to join at any time.

Start cup recycling now!

Please email CupRecycling@Valpak.co.uk to find out more.