Curious about paper cups and re-useable mugs?

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Paper cup recycling

Good news! You can now recycle paper cups in special cups bins around the campus.  To ensure your paper cup is recycled please look for the dedicated cup recycling points near cafés and catering outlets.  Please put your cup in to the collection point (please empty it first of dregs in the slot provided!) and your cup will be made in to new paper products such as bags and notebooks. 

Why the change?  Paper cups commonly have a plastic lining which is bonded to the cardboard; this is hard to remove and makes recycling the paper tricky.  However we have just started a new trial with the University’s waste contractor where the paper cups are sent to a specialist facility in the UK that has the correct technology to separate the card from the plastic for recycling.  This is why the cups need to be collected separately from other recycling. 

In the first week of the trial, staff and students sent 23kg for recycling, which is approximately 2,090 paper cups so far!  We expect that the number of cups collected for recycling will continue to increase as staff and students become more aware that cups can be recycled.  To find out more (including locations of cup collection points) please visit Sustainability’s paper cup recycling page or contact waste@reading.ac.uk.  

What about re-useable cups?

Re-useable cups are an excellent way of reducing waste, by avoiding the use of paper cups in the first place.  There are a range of initiatives which have already been implemented, including the very successful Sustain It bottle for soft drinks. 

Following on from its success, we are pleased to launch the Sustain It mug, a reusable mug for hot drinks across campus. Each mug costs £3.00 and will be available to purchase at catering outlets across the University from Monday 9 April. 

The Sustain It mug forms part of re-useable cup scheme by Catering Services which will be launched jointly with a 20p tax on paper cups. This is to encourage use of re-useable mugs and to reduce the quantity of paper cups used.  The tax will be ring-fenced for sustainability initiatives within Catering Services. Download the flyer to find out more or contact cateringadmin@reading.ac.uk.  

For more information about our recent initiatives, please visit the Sustainability’s paper cup recycling page.