Paper Cup Recovery & Recycling Group appoints chair, executive board members

Following its inaugural formal meeting, the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG) has named Neil Whittall of Huhtamaki as its chair and executive board member.

The organization, consisting of organizations from the different parts of the paper cup supply chain, in the United Kingdom and Europe, is working to encourage and develop recycling and diversion programs for paper cups.

Along with appointing a chair, the PCRRG also named the following to its executive board:

• Adrian Pratt of Benders Paper Cups
• Oliver Rosevear of Costa Coffee
• Matt Spencer, of Caffè Nero
• Bradley Smith of Grundon Waste Management.

Building on work previously undertaken by the PCRRG, the executive board has chosen to focus its initial efforts on two parts of the paper cup supply chain and has set up working groups accordingly. One working group will consider how consumers recycle their paper cups, initially within a specific location, and will test what influences their behavior. The other working group will focus on the logistical, technical and economic viability associated with sorting and reprocessing used paper cups to obtain materials of an appropriate quality that can be reused in the paper supply chain.

Whittall, who will be leading the working group for the ‘upstream’ project, says, “I am really looking forward to working with fellow members to effectively target and understand consumers’ behavior at each touch point and how we can affect their actions to capture enough of the right materials, with low levels of contamination.”

Adrian Pratt from Benders Paper Cups will lead the ‘downstream’ working group “It’s exciting to get a cross-sector team together to undertake a trial to understand the economic viability of transporting and reprocessing collected paper cups for use back in the paper supply chain,” says Pratt. “We hope to truly establish the probable mix of materials that reprocessors would be expected to handle and the likely outputs from the sorting stages, in order to assess the potential for the project to be viably scaled up.”

The consulting firm LRS Consultancy will continue to manage and coordinate the PCRRG and its activities and is supporting the implementation of the working group projects, which will be undertaken using controlled trials over 2 the next three to six months.

The PCRRG’s primary objectives are to continue to drive action around the development of the collection and recycling opportunities for paper cups and identify and support implementation of solutions to sustainably transform used paper cups into a valuable resource.