7-Eleven and Simply Cups has announced a new takeaway cup recycling initiative starting on March 2018. They are targeting to save 70 million takeaway cups from going to the landfill.
They will put up 7-Eleven Simply Cups collection bins for takeaway coffee and Slurpee cups in over 200 7-Eleven stores nationally. There will be 50 other large-scale locations in universities or construction sites.
“As Australia’s second largest takeaway coffee destination we felt we had a responsibility to take the lead and find a solution to save cups from going to landfill,” 7-Eleven chief executive officer, Angus McKay said.
“In partnership with Simply Cups, 7-Eleven has developed a collection and recycling programme for coffee and Slurpee cups to kick start the cup recycling revolution across Australia. As the programme scales up, 7-Eleven is committing to recycling 70 million cups a year, equivalent to the number we sell in-store.”
Currently, there are more than one billion takeaway cups that end up in landfills every year in Australia. 7-Eleven said there is no effective way for cups to be recycled due to the polyethylene or liquid paperboard lining, which are contaminants for regular paper recycling facilities. Now there is a new home-grown technology which can treat plastic lined cups.
“Simply Cups now has access to technology that removes the plastic lining from paper-based cups so that both materials can then be processed in regular paper and plastic recycling facilities,” explained Rob Pascoe, founder of Closed Loop’s Simply Cups.
“By collecting takeaway cups via a separate waste stream, Simply Cups can guarantee that cups collected through the dedicated 7-Eleven bins will be recycled. I’m really excited to be partnering with 7-Eleven to help solve one of Australia’s biggest waste problems.”
“It doesn’t matter where you purchase your drink, we want consumers to dispose of their cups in the 7-Eleven Simply Cups bin and be part of the cup recycling revolution,” McKay said.
McKay and Pascoe both encouraged other organisations to get onboard and implement a Simply Cups programme to save cups from going to landfill.
