A new scheme with rubbish bins for recycling takeaway cups are being piloted in Edinburgh following a successful pilot in Dundee and Glasgow.
There are new bins installed at strategic points throughout the city, such as Market Street, Waverley Bridge, and Haymarket Station, to collect single-use plastic cups.
The bins will test the effectiveness of on-street cup recycling and aim to curb the amount of waste caused by single-use coffee cups, of which an estimated 388 million are used in Scotland every year, with only 4% being recycled.
Bins have also been installed in stores such as Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, McDonald’s and Greggs in the city centre, Leith, Stockbridge, Tollcross, and the Southside.
The Edinburgh Cup Movement was joined by representatives from Greggs, McDonald’s, Costa Coffee, and Starbucks at a campaign launch (C) Edinburgh Cup Movement
More than 30 stores in Edinburgh are participating in Take It Back, allowing customers to take a single-use cup back to any of the above retailers to be recycled.
Heather McLaughlin, Keep Scotland Beautiful campaigns manager, said: “Single-use cups make up a huge percentage of the items polluting Scotland’s environment.
“More than half of people in Scotland (59%) often see littered single-use cups. In Edinburgh alone a recent bin audit of on-street bins outside Waverley Station found that single-use cups made up 59% of the drinks waste.
“The reality is that these single-use products are already ending up as litter. We need to address our over consumption of single-use products and make an effort to choose reusable options.
“However, we know that reuse is not always possible or practical. This scheme will make it easier for people who use single-use cups to ensure they are recycled properly.”
A full map of the bins is available on the Keep Scotland Beautiful website.
The initiative is part of a collaboration between the City of Edinburgh Council and the National Cup Recycling Scheme.
The “Cup Movement” campaign in Edinburgh hopes to build upon previous recycling schemes in Glasgow and Dundee.
Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, City of Edinburgh Council’s environment convener, said: “Increasing recycling rates in the city is one of our key priorities.
“It’s important we support targeted projects like this to make it easier for people to dispose of takeaway cups, which have become so popular in recent years and the prominent locations of these three new dedicated bins will hopefully do that.
“I’d also always encourage residents and visitors buying a regular cuppa to wherever possible take their own cup into takeaway stores to cut down on the need to use the disposable ones at all.”
Typical single-use hot drink cups cannot go into standard recycling bins or be recycled at home, so must be deposited in dedicated single-use cup recycling bins.
Hannah Osman, national cup recycling manager at Valpak Ltd, said: “Transport hubs are some of the highest footfall locations in Scotland, and we know from our data that a significant volume of single-use cups are consumed on the go.
“By targeting key commuter routes, this trial allows us to test how dedicated infrastructure in the right locations can capture more material and significantly increase recycling rates.
“Through this partnership, we’re using real-time data and evidence from previous trials to understand what works, measure contamination levels, track capture rates, and build a scalable model for on-street cup recycling.
“The goal is simple: make cup recycling visible, convenient and data-driven so it can be rolled out effectively across other cities in Scotland and beyond.”
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