James Cropper Paper Mill to recycle used coffee cups

England-based James Cropper Paper Manufacturing received its first bales of used coffee cups from a pioneering pilot scheme in collaboration with Forge Waste & Recycling, Leeds, England, and environmental charity Hubbub Foundation and Leeds City Council. According to a James Cropper news release, the delivery “marks a significant step in [James Cropper’s] ambition to help recycle some of the estimated 3 billion takeaway cups that are currently thrown away in the U.K. each year.” 

The mill uses CupCycling technology, which is a process dedicated to upcycling disposable coffee cups. According to a James Cropper news release, the mill also has the capacity to upcycle about 500 million used coffee cups.

James Cropper reports that Forge Recycling has collected about 200,000 single-use coffee cups since launching on Oct. 18, 2018. The cups have been collected from workplaces, coffee shops, universities, shopping centers and on-the-street cup bins. 

Running until March 2019, the pilot will take place alongside the #LeedsByExample campaign. According to a James Cropper news release the campaign seeks to improve on-the-go recycling infrastructure for coffee cups and other packaging such as plastics and cans for consumers in Leeds. Waste is collected by Forge Recycling, which introduced a new paper cup collection service as well. The recycler has performed a cup collection service for Leeds University and Leeds Beckett University. 

According to a news release, the cups that the mill collects go through the mill’s CupCycling facility, which launched in September 2017. To date, the mill has upcycled more than 30 million disposable cups. 

“With the capacity to upcycle 500 million coffee cups per year we welcome the thousands of discarded cups brought to Kendal today and hope this is just one of many local initiatives we can support to meet the capacity that we have,” says Phil Wild, chairman and CEO of James Cropper. “This scheme demonstrates that with the right infrastructure, great in-roads can be made to tackle the coffee cup issue. 

“There needs to be a change in mindset in how we handle waste and source materials, and ensuring packaging is easy for consumers to recycle is key to this. The delivery marks a pivotal moment for recycling in the UK – and for us, it’s a step towards realizing the potential of our CupCycling capabilities.”

A host of major brands, such as such Asda, Coca-Cola GB, Costa Coffee, McDonald’s, Pret a Manger, Starbucks and Shell, have joined Hubbub’s #LeedsByExample initiative to date. While the trial in Leeds ends in March 2019, Forge Waste & Recycling estimate that the number of coffee cups it could deliver to James Cropper in one year from Leeds alone could exceed 1 million. 

“In just three months we’ve quickly moved from collecting very few cups to nearly 200,000 that are ready for delivery to the James Cropper mill,” says Sam Goodall, operations director at Forge Waste & Recycling. “The pilot shows that the potential for our work with Hubbub and James Cropper to transform UK waste and embed circular economy thinking when it comes to coffee cups in cities is very real.”

“We’re incredibly proud to work with Forge and Hubbub, who have successfully delivered a game-changing system which can help us become a nation that truly creates value from waste,” Wild adds, “We encourage more cities across the country to explore how they can adopt this pioneering initiative.”