A new initiative plans to collect and recycle 70 million takeaway cups annually.
It comes as Australians become increasingly aware of the number of disposable cups that end up in landfills every year.
The partnership between 7-Eleven and Simply Cups will see collection bins for takeaway cups installed in more than 200 7-Eleven stores nationally and 50 other busy locations such as universities and construction sites from March 2018.
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“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,” said 7-Eleven CEO Angus McKay.
Currently, more than one billion takeaway cups end up in landfill each year in Australia because there is no effective way for cups to be recycled, due to the polyethylene or liquid lining being a contaminant for regular paper recycling facilities. However, there is now a way to 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,” explains 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,” he said.