US-based coffee firm Starbucks has introduced a new paper cup recycling bin designed to reduce paper cup waste.
The new cup bin, which is planned to be made available initially across 21 Starbucks stores in London, UK, by January next year, will help emptying, stacking and collection of paper cups for effective recycling.
The bin was developed to encourage people to return their take-away cups back into store for disposing directly at the store’s waste collection system.
Starbucks Europe communications vice-president Simon Redfern said: “This is a complex but important issue across the industry.
“While we continue to test new paper cup innovations that meet our safety standards, we can address this issue in two ways; reducing the number of paper cups used by offering our long-standing 25p reusable cup discount incentive and finding new ways to help customers recycle their paper cups.
“Our message to customers is: please bring in your reusable cup and enjoy a 25p discount – or if you’re enjoying a coffee in a paper cup in Central and West London please bring it into our stores and help us test our new cup bins because the more you support these initiatives, the more we’ll learn.”
Starbucks, along with waste management provider Veolia, has conducted an in-house trial of the paper cup recycling bin.
The company said that it allows its customers to recycle their paper cups through a ‘post-back’ cup care scheme provided by its waste management partner, Veolia.
