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Costa coffee vows to recycle 500 million coffee cups by 2020

Costa Coffee has vowed to recycle half a billion takeaway cups a year until 2020.

The coffee chain anticipates at least 100 million cups will be recycled by the end of 2018 and promised to recycle 500 million every year following.

Costa will pay a supplement of £70 to the waste collectors for every tonne of of the cups recycled in order to encourage collection.

In the UK, 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away each year, of which 99.75 per cent are not recycled.

They have a mixture of paper and plastic in their inner lining - designed to make them both heat- and leak-proof which has made them difficult to dispose of in the past.

Environmentalists have welcomed Costa’s move to tackle the problem.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey, said: “Congratulations Costa on taking this significant step to help coffee lovers do the right thing and increase recycling. We all have a responsibility to our environment and this is a significant step by a British business which should dramatically increase the number of disposable coffee cups we recycle in this country.”

Five waste collection firms have been involved in developing Costa’s new scheme: Veolia, Biffa, Suez, Grundon and First Mile.

Costa said it hoped by supplementing waste collectors it would make it “commercially and financially attractive” for waste collectors to put in place the infrastructure and processes to collect, sort and transport coffee cups to recycling plants, meaning fewer cups will end up in landfill.

The coffee chain has said it will pay a supplement of £70 to waste collectors for every tonne of coffee cups collected (Getty Images)
The coffee chain has said it will pay a supplement of £70 to waste collectors for every tonne of coffee cups collected (Getty Images)

Dominic Paul, Managing Director for Costa, said: “Costa is putting its money where its mouth is to find an immediate solution to increasing the volume of takeaway coffee cups being recycled in the UK. It also dispels the myth that coffee cups can’t be recycled!”

“Following today’s announcement up to 100 million cups will be recycled this year alone and if the nation’s other coffee chains sign up, there is no reason why all takeaway cups could not be recycled by as early as 2020.

“At Costa we want to guarantee our customers that if they throw their cup into the right recycling bin it will get recycled, and today’s announcement is a major step towards that happening.

“We have set our own target to recycle the same volume of takeaway cups we use every year and call on other cup retailers to join and help to build a dynamic market for takeaway coffee cup recycling.”