DS Smith introduces coffee cup recycling scheme

DS Smith, a London-based sustainable packaging solutions provider, has introduced a new scheme to help recycle coffee cups in the United Kingdom.

In the U.K., up to 7.8 million cups end up in landfill or are burned every day with 58 percent of British workers disposing of their cups at work, DS Smith reports in a news release. To respond to this, DS Smith is launching a specially designed Coffee Cup Drop Box to help recycle coffee cups. 

Made from recycled paper, the box can be used to collect coffee cups from across the U.K. and is available to 2.7 million businesses operating in the U.K. Each box holds about 700 cups and once full it is collected by Royal Mail and is returned to DS Smith’s recycled paper mill to be recycled back into new paper packaging products.

“We broke new ground last year when we redefined coffee cup recycling and announced capacity to recycle 2.5 billion coffee cups at our Mill in Kent,” says Jochen Behr, head of recycling at DS Smith. “With this figure only increasing, we need to ensure these cups reach us separate from other waste. Through our Coffee Cup Drop Box we can provide the much-needed national infrastructure to reduce the 7.8 million coffee cups that are currently falling through the gap on commutes, in offices and across the U.K.”

As a result of this effort from DS Smith and others in the recycling industry, coffee cup recycling has increased from 1 in 400 cups to 1 in 25 cups over the last two years, DS Smith reports  in a news release. According to YouGov research commissioned by DS Smith, more than half of all adults in Great Britain believe that when they recycle their used coffee cups they are turned into new products. However, DS Smith reports that nearly 20 percent of adults think that even when recycled these cups end up incinerated or landfilled. 

According to a news release from DS Smith, the company’s Coffee Cup Recycling Drop Boxes will be available through the company’s ePack e-commerce platform, meaning small and medium-size boxes, as well as larger organizations can easily access the scheme.