New initiatives in place to help cut down paper cup waste
Monday, 09 April 2018
Two key new sustainability initiatives come into effect today (Monday 9 April) to help cut down the number of paper cups used on campus.
Following the success of the reusable Sustain It bottle for soft drinks, a reusable mug for hot drinks is now available to purchase from catering outlets across the University. At just £3.00, the Sustain It mug offers an eco-friendly option for enjoying hot drinks on campus – when ordering a drink, simply hand over your Sustain It mug and enjoy! The compact mug comes with a lid and so is easy to carry around campus – in fact, you can use it anywhere you like!
Reusable cups and bottles are an excellent way of reducing waste, and help avoid the use of paper cups in the first place.
In addition, Catering Services are introducing a 20p tax on paper cups from Monday 9 April. This is to help encourage the use of reusable mugs and bottles, so that the quantity of paper cups used across campus can be reduced. The tax will be ring-fenced for sustainability initiatives within Catering Services.
For more information on these two initiatives, please download the flyer or contact cateringadmin@reading.ac.uk.
Paper cup recycling
While we are trying to cut down on the quantity of paper cups used on campus, we’re also trying to minimise their effect on the environment. Did you know that 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.