The selected programmes will receive grants of between £50,000 and £100,000, all funded by the Starbucks 5p cup charge. The aim of The Cup Fund grant is to develop long-term infrastructure and to bolster paper cup recycling.
There will be an estimated 35 million cups recycled over the course of a year, including over four million in London alone. A total of 36 organisations will work together to make the schemes a ‘success.’
Shirley Rodrigues, deputy mayor of London for Environment and Energy, commented: “I’m pleased to see five London-based projects are being awarded The Cup Fund.
“It’s great to see projects which prevent single-use cups ending up in landfill or being incinerated, but our ultimate goal must be to reduce the amount we use in the first place. We already know that there is a great willingness in London to ditch single-use plastic bottles and drinks containers.”
Brixton has at least 20 independent coffee shops including a coffee roastery that will be provided with the facilities to encourage consumers, residents and visitors to dispose their cups in an environmentally friendly way. It is estimated this initiative will be able to collect 10% of the estimated total cups in use, which is 120,000 per year.
All cups collected by the funded projects will be recycled within the UK into new products such as paper bags and greetings cards. There is expected to be 420 tonnes of waste that will be recycled.
The winners of The Cup Fund include:
- Northampton
- Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, London
- Giltbrook Retail Park, Nottingham
- York
- Gloucester, Tebay and Cairn Lodge Services
- Oxford
- Camden, London
- Bristol
- University of Westminster
- Queen Mary University of London
- London School of Economics (LSE)
- Southbank, London
- Brixton, London
As well as financial help Hubbub will give guidance to enable the projects to achieve the greatest long-term impacts.
Gavin Ellis, director and co-founder of Hubbub, said: “While reusable cups are the most environmentally friendly choice, billions of paper cups are still being used each year and most aren’t currently recycled.
“There is the capacity to recycle them, so The Cup Fund will introduce cup recycling points in high footfall locations to collect large numbers of cups and ensure that they are recycled.
“We have been so impressed with the scale of the winning projects’ ambitions and we are looking forward to supporting them over the coming year.”
Hubbub and Starbucks combined earlier this year when they introduced the first airport reusable trial in partnership with Gatwick to help reduce paper cup waste and address throwaway culture.
Former environment minister Thérèse Coffey, added: “I commend Hubbub and Starbucks for stepping up and helping to cut waste through their innovative Cup Fund, creating a legacy of greater recycling in our workplaces, universities and local communities.
“It’s time to call time on unnecessary waste, and as a government we have set out our plans to radically overhaul the waste system though our landmark Resources and Waste Strategy, working to protect our environment for future generations.”
For more information on The Cup Fund winning projects, visit: