VENDING CUPS


Environment crisis sees recycling soar


It would be almost impossible for vending to escape the disposable cup which is why the issue of safely disposing of themis so important. Here VI looks at how recycling rates have escalated and what cupmanufacturers are doing to play their part.


One cannot ignore the stark warnings about the dangers facing our environment.Whether it’s the scale of carbon emissions, the masses of waste the UK is producing to go to landfill, or th plastics on our oceans, the horror stories are just g


etting scarier. e scourge of


Not content to sit on the side lines and watch, the protest group Extinction Rebellion recently brought London to a standstill to implore government to avert a climate crisis.


And while the group’s methods infuriated many Londoners trying to get to work, there is no doubt the action made many people stand up and take notice about the overall impact our daily lives are having on the planet.


Vending has an intimate relationship with the disposable cup in particular, as consumers need them to enjoy their favourite on-the- go hot or cold beverages every day.


Now it is true that some eco-focused customers are ditching


before they become the rule rather than the excep disposables and reaching for reusable cups, but it


VA’s Cup Committee chair, Adrian Pratt, has argued in the past that vending has an opportunity to make a big difffference because it operates in close looped service environments such as offffices or industry. This in effffect puts vending cups into a much cleaner waste stream where they can more easily be recovered. The missing part of the jigsaw has been getting the cups to the right facilities where they can be properly and effffectively recycled thereby minimising or eliminating their threat to the environment. The good news is that in the last two years significant progress has been made in this regard. The Paper Cup Recovery & Recycling Group reports that recycling rates have been slashed from one in 400 cups to one in 25 in the short period of two years. These figures are set to improve even further to one in 12 this ye The PCRRG has a manifesto goal that by 2020 th


The AVA of the UK population will have access to information, schemes and 26 | vendinginternational-online.com


might be a while tion.


facilities that enable used paper cups to be sustainably recovered and recycled.


It contends that in actual fact the capacity exists right now to recycle all the paper cups used in the UK. There are 4,500 paper cup recycling paper cu


ps and 21 waste collectors activ points countrywide, 115 local a


drives to improve recycling.


NeilWhittall, chairman of the PCRRG said: “The industry can be justly proud of the progress it has made so far but of course we know that there is more work to do. Consumers are rightly demanding change and Government is keen to make that happen.”


ely participating in national uthorities now collecting


e greater majority ar.


CUPMANUFACTURERS


Meanwhile cup manufacturers are widely embracing the demand to safeguard the environment with launches of range aftfter range of


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