29 Jul 2016
Wake up and smell the…waste
Last night on Hugh’s War on Waste (BBC1, 9pm), the broadcaster and environmental campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall shone a spotlight on the growing mountain of disposable coffee cups discarded every day.
2.5 billion cups are thrown away each year in the UK. On campus we get through more than 750,000. Stacked together the cups would be 177 times taller than Towers.
The problem is that the coffee cups we currently use are lined with a thin layer of plastic and can only be recycled if they’re collected separately from the other recycling.
In a bid to tackle the part we play in this growing problem, Loughborough is launching a drive to reduce the number of disposable cups we use on campus.
We’ll be using crockery in the cafes when you’re drinking in. New special cup bins will be made available to allow us to recycle any disposable cups. And there’ll be discounts on coffee for anyone using a reusable cup, with a custom-made ‘Loughborough Cup’ available soon – keep an eye out for more information in the coming weeks!