Selfridges in coffee-cup-to-carrier-bag sustainability initiative

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 13, 2017

With the number of disposable coffee cups reaching epic proportions and recycling of such cups being patchy at best, Selfridges has announced a new initiative to turn them into its distinctive bright yellow shopping bags.

The bags will contain 20% cup fibre with each one therefore representing one eight ounce cup.

Around 2.5 billion paper cups are used in Britain every year and their polyethylene lining has previously made them non-recyclable. But the company is working with paper manufacturer James Cropper to re-process the materials at its CupCycling plant with the paper firm having the facilities to separate the two materials and to recycle both.

Ads

The UK retailer said that disposable cups from its food hall and offices will carry the CupCycling logo and the bags themselves will be recyclable in the usual way by shoppers.

The initiative makes Selfridges the first retailer to to “up-cycle” its cups in this way with the firm saying that its customers are becoming increasingly aware of global waste issues.

Chris Brant, director of retail projects and FM at the company said the move it part of its ‘Buying Better, Inspiring Change’ approach, that seeks to be both sustainable and efficient.