Royal Mail helps tackle coffee cup waste

DS Smith, a sustainable packaging solutions provider, has teamed up with Royal Mail for a new coffee cup recycling scheme which could see hundreds of millions of cups recycled each year.

In the UK up to 7.8 million cups end up in landfill or are burned every day. To respond to this, and following successful trials with partners including EY, DS Smith has launched its specially designed Coffee Cup Drop Box.

Made from recycled paper, the box can be used to collect coffee cups from across the UK and is available to the 2.7 million businesses operating in the UK. Each box holds around 700 cups and once full it is collected by Royal Mail and it is returned to DS Smith’s recycled paper mill, to be recycled back into new paper packaging products.

Increases in coffee cup recycling capability is the result of innovation across DS Smith’s Recycling, Paper and Packaging divisions, as well as collaborations with logistic partners and customers. The Coffee Cup Recycling Drop Boxes will be available through DS Smith’s ePack ecommerce platform, meaning small and medium size businesses, as well as larger organisations can easily access the scheme.