Improve your green credentials
with our Coffee Cup Recycling Scheme
Veolia's Coffee Cup Recycling service is a nationwide scheme that will ensure your coffee cups are recycled, reducing waste to landfill and improving your green credentials.
How we can help
We can supply your business with specialist internal bins for customers or your staff. These include separate sections to dispose of lids, stirrers, pour off excess liquid and stack the cups. Our standard method of collection allows for up to 700 cups to be collected by our couriers and sent for reprocessing.
You’ll need to transfer the cups to a cardboard box lined with a clear plastic liner. Once it’s full, tape it shut and contact our cup recycling team to arrange a courier collection.
WATCH: Veolia's coffee cup recycling solution
How do we create value for you?
Our coffee cup recycling service will help you to boost your recycling performance, improve your carbon footprint and meet your corporate responsibility targets.
Recycling cups ultimately reduces the disposal costs of your other bins. It also reduces the amount of waste you send to landfill, reducing your overall costs associated with environmental compliance and landfill tax.
What happens to your cup waste?
The courier will take your cups to our nearest recovery facility. We will then use specialist pulping plants in the UK and abroad to separate the fibres from the plastic lining, ready for recycling. Any materials that cannot be recycled will be used to generate green energy. This ensures that your used paper cups will be recycled into a new product as part of the circular economy.
Below you will find some answers to FAQs:
Can I recycle my coffee cups?
Outside of a cup recycling schemes like ours, disposable paper cups go to Energy from Waste (EfW) or landfill if placed in a general waste bin. A small amount of cups may go to fibre recovery.
Why can I not put disposable paper cups into mixed recycling or paper recycling bins?
Recycling facilities do not have the technology to efficiently segregate used paper cups for recycling and as standard paper mills do not currently accept paper cups mixed in with other types of waste paper they cannot be sorted with other waste papers for recycling.
How are disposable paper cups recycled by Veolia?
Once the consumer has ‘Tipped-it, flipped-it and stacked-it’ – a process to ensure any remaining liquid is drained and the lid, sleeve and cup are separated – Veolia undertakes a further separation process to guarantee all rogue items have been removed. This is key because it will help to ensure a higher quality of material that can be reprocessed into a new product.
Veolia will utilise specialist pulping plants both in the UK and abroad which separate the fibres from the plastic lining for recycling.
How will cups be segregated by customers?
Veolia can provide customers with specially designed bins as part of our coffee cup recycling service. These bins will have designated sections for customers to dispose of lids, stirrers, tea bags etc, pour off any excess liquid and stack the used cups.
How will used disposable cups be collected?
Veolia has partnered with a nationwide parcel courier to collect the used paper cups. Customers will need to line a cardboard box with a clear plastic liner, place the stacked cups into the lined box and then tape the box shut once it is filled with cups. Customers will then contact our cup recycling team to book on a collection with our courier who will collect the boxed cups and deliver them to a Veolia facility ready for recycling.
What guidance is available to help customers segregate and recycle their used disposable cups?
Veolia provides a range of posters that customer can use to educate their staff on the recycling of their disposable paper cups.
What type of businesses require disposable paper cup collections?
Disposable paper cups are found in a large range of business environments including offices, hospitals, schools, colleges & universities, large manufacturing facilities, coffee shops, shopping centres, train stations, leisure venues, conference venues, hotels and many more.
Why should my customers recycle their disposable paper cups?
By using the Veolia paper cup recycling service you can be guaranteed that your used paper cups are being recycled into a new product as part of the the circular economy.
Why has Veolia developed this bespoke service?
Due to recent media attention and a requirement to meet our customer needs we have developed this service to capture used disposable paper cups from multiple sites across the UK. This service will offer nationwide coverage and will put Veolia in a unique position with current and potential customers.
How many coffee cups are recycled?
Since 2017 we have recycled over 100 million coffee cups saving 580 tonnes of CO2e and creating 855 tonnes of fibrous material for use in luxury paper products.
How can I introduce coffee cup recycling as part of my waste management service?
You can start recycling your used coffee cups and reduce your environmental impact today, simply complete the short form on this page and a friendly member of our team will be in touch.
