Big players sign up to paper cup manifesto

More than 45 companies, including major fast food chains and contract caterers, have signed a manifesto to increase the collection and recycling of paper cups.

The issue was brought to the public’s attention in March 2016 through Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s War On Waste initiative. The industry, it seems, has been sufficiently spooked to act.

The manifesto, launched by the Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) and Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group, provides a public commitment from signatories to work collaboratively to increase access to information, schemes and facilities that enable used paper cups to be sustainably recovered and recycled.

“The paper cup supply chain agrees to work together to ensure paper cups are designed, used, disposed of and collected to maximise the opportunities for recycling by further investment and funding of recycling, disposal and collection projects,” the pledge reads.

Starbucks, Costa, Sodexo, Compass, Nestlé and McDonald’s are amongst the companies to have signed up. However, no targets for reduction or recycling have yet been set.

Just 0.25% of the 3bn paper cups used in the UK are currently recycled, according to Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaign.