SELECTA UK has announced the launch of its new SelectaGreen Cup Recycling Service, which will see their coffee cups be recycled into high end packaging for perfumes and colognes, as well as notepads and shopping bags.
The initiative has been developed in partnership with Veolia, a UK environmental solutions provider. The service will allow for an ‘easy and cost-effective’ way for Selecta vending customers across the UK to recycle their paper cups.
Each vendor who signs up to the scheme will receive a SelectaGreen Cup Recycling box which, once full, will be collected by Veolia within 48 hours of a request being received. The cups are then transported to Veolia’s facility in Essex, where a separation process is undertaken to guarantee all rogue items have been removed.
Selecta say that the scheme will ensure millions of cups can be collected for processing each week, with the scheme being available to more than 10,000 customers across the UK.
Emily Stoten, marketing director of Selecta UK said, “At Selecta, we take sustainability and our responsibilities to the environment seriously. The recycling of a paper coffee cup is a complex process. Whilst our cups can already be recycled, we recognise that it isn’t always easy for our customers to do this due to supply chain challenges, particularly when they are not based in city centres.”
She added, “As the largest supplier of vending machines in Europe, this is a significant step forward in removing a barrier for businesses and locations such as colleges and hospitals to contribute to recycling in the UK as it will ensure millions of cups a week can be collected for processing to be used in the paper pulp manufacturing industry.”
A recent Parliamentary report published by MPs on the environmental audit committee showed that the UK produces 30,000 tonnes of coffee cup waste each year, and just one in 400 cups are recycled – less than 0.25%.
Emily Stoten said on such figures, “This is a serious issue and we have approached it responsibly with the aim of producing a sustainable scheme that yields results reducing waste to landfill and helping our customers achieve their sustainability objectives.
“With this scheme, we have chosen the easiest route to make sure the highest possible volume of cups are dealt with and we feel that recycling through this effective and guaranteed scheme being offered by Veolia is the way forward.
“We expect to see a dramatic increase in recycling achieved through the SelectaGreen box scheme at hubs across the UK and we are proud to be able to be part of this process.”
Keith McGurk, regional director for Veolia, said, “We are delighted to partner with Selecta to deliver Veolia’s innovative solution for their customers and help improve their environmental performance. With distribution points being far and wide and limited access to recycling points, our challenge has been to capture their customers’ cups. We have solved this by offering our national collection to more than 10,000 of Selecta’s customers, using our infrastructure and expertise.
“Since we launched this scheme in 2017, Veolia has already diverted more than 60 million cups from energy recovery and landfill. We look forward to improving these green credentials further with our new partner.”
