Major cup recycling scheme hits London
Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - 12:54:55
The City of London is one of the worlds busiest working districts, with professionals fuelled by takeaway coffee walking its streets in their thousands. But while litter is not too much of an issue in this economic hub, recycling is far from being a priority.
This is set to change as part of the Square Mile Challenge, a scheme which seeks to change habits and encourage people to dispose of their used coffee cups in a sustainable way, rather than simply tossing them into a general waste bin.
More than 130 businesses in the City of London will be offering paper cup recycling receptacles that can be used to do away with used containers from any origin, according to BBC News.
Each day around seven million paper cups are thrown away by the UK’s coffee drinkers, hitting 2.5 billion annually, with just a single percentage point of this total being recycled at the moment. So the drive to increase the availability of recycling facilities is an important one that could dramatically reduce the number of cups which end up in landfill.
Deputy mayor for environment and energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said that the capital had previously lacked a cohesive plan to tackle coffee cup recycling, which is why the launch of the Square Mile Challenge is seen as so significant. It represents a unification of the efforts to cut waste and improve sustainability, while also getting organisations involved.
If this project proves to be a success then it is likely to be replicated across the rest of London and the UK as a whole. It is by making small changes in habits, whether recycling coffee cups or selling old mobile phones rather than hoarding them needlessly, that major improvements can be achieved throughout the country.
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