Sustainability Director, Andy Spencer, was inspired by the BBC1 programme ‘Hugh’s War on Waste’ which explained how paper cups used by coffee chains cannot be recycled due to the plastic lining contained within them and also how the cups are all made from primary material.
Andy said: “As many of you are aware we use this type of paper cup in some of our offices costing both money and environmental impact. They are at least 5p each to buy and then we have to pay to dispose of them. Raw materials are used but they can’t be recycled.
Amazingly we use around 50,000 of these cups a year in Rugby office alone! On the 7th Floor today in Rugby we’ve stopped using paper cups and moved to washable mugs, taking responsibility for washing up and keeping tidy. It would be great if we could roll this practice out – we have plenty of mugs available at Rugby and would be able to distribute them around offices as people travel so do let us know if you can make the change and we’ll get some across to you. This will save the business money, help our EP&L and the environment. I’ll be touring the Rugby office to rally support over the next few days! All we’d ask is that you take responsibility for washing up your own mug. We’re very close to starting to implement some better office recycling initiatives on sites where we haven’t had up to date facilities, and ditching our paper cups would be a great way of starting this initiative! Thanks for your support.” A good ‘mug’ shot of the committed individuals below….
If you didn’t see it, Hugh’s War On Waste is available on catch up and also a BBC news article can be found on the following link: