HUBBUB’S ACTIVITY In 2016 Hubbub ran the #1MoreShot trial in Manchester to test whether the public would recycle their paper cups if they were provided with cup recycling bins and good communications. The trial recycled almost 30,000 cups in three months from one street, demonstrating that the public are willing to recycle their cups especially if the bins are located in managed locations such as university campuses, hospitals and workplaces. In April 2017 Hubbub, along with Simply Cups, launched the Square Mile Challenge which built on the learnings from #1MoreShot with a much larger campaign in the City of London. 36 large employers in the City signed up to receive discounted cup bins and collections, 7 bins were located on the streets with the cooperation of City of London Corporation and the campaign was backed by all leading coffee chains including Starbucks.
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Each retailer introduced cup recycling bins in store and the public could recycle their cups in any bin regardless of where they bought the drink. This was supported by a communications and social media campaign providing consistent messages about cup recycling across the whole of the City. The Square Mile Challenge recycled 5 million cups in 12 months, demonstrating the impact that can be made through collaboration, experimentation and stimulating a national debate. Recycling disposable cups is a significant improvement on simply throwing them away, and finding a recycling solution is a vitally important part of solving the issue of paper cup waste. However, following the so-called ‘waste hierarchy’ of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, the first priority is to try to reduce the number of disposable cups used in the first place. How can the public be encouraged to use ‘reusable’ cups?
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