They’re up for the cups
Businesses part of takeaway recycling effort
A Stirlingshire social enterprise is helping to keep a lid on the number of takeaway coffee cups being sent to landfill.
Love Lochs and Landscapes, a new environmental initiative set up earlier this year by Balfron resident Alison Limbert, is linking up with five west Stirlingshire businesses to collect used takeaway cups before sending them off to be recycled into new products.
The Drymen Hub and Skoosh in Main Street Drymen; But & Ben in Main Street Croftamie; the Soup Dragon Café at Tir Na Nog, Balfunning, and Turnip the Beet at the Killearn Mill Business Park, have joined the two-pronged campaign to reduce and recycle waste in the area. The businesses not only actively encourage customers to use reuseable cups but also are collecting used single-use hot drink containers from their outlet - and from other cafes too - for recycling.
Alison set up Love Lochs and Landscapes after witnessing the impact of growing visitor numbers on the natural environment of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
An advocate of sustainable tourism, she was also keen to bring visitors, businesses and communities together in more environmentally-friendly ways.
Her experience as a volunteer on the Balfron 10k committee, which in 2019 ambitiously set out to become the greenest 10k in Scotland, cemented the idea that more solutions needed to be found for the area’s growing litter problem.
A grant from the Climate Challenge Fund has enabled Love Lochs and Landscapes to launch the coffee cup campaign which Alison stresses is more important than ever right now as Covid-19 hygiene worries have resulted in fewer businesses accepting reusable cups.
She says there is no evidence of the transmission of the virus through food packaging as long as basic hygiene practices are followed. In fact, two of the biggest coffee chains, Starbucks and Costa Coffee are accepting reuseable cups again.
Our love of takeaway coffee Alison says has resulted in some alarming waste figures which are going to keep soaring unless action is taken. It is estimated there are around 200 million single-use coffee cups in circulation every year in Scotland, of which less than one per cent are recycled, and 40,000 are littered.
Anyone wishing to support the campaign can take their used takeaway coffee cup – even if it came from another café to one of the five businesses where it is then sent to specialist recycling company, First Mile. The paper and plastic from the cups are made into shopping bags, notebooks and cardboard and the compostable material is transformed into fertiliser.
Denise Foster, of Drymen’s Skoosh coffee shop, is happy to be doing her bit for the campaign by being a collection point for the used cups. She said: “I myself cannot make a huge difference to this beautiful country’s landscape, but if we all do just a little something, we can all make a huge difference together.’’
For more information on this and future campaigns visit lovelochsandlandscapes.co.uk
If we all do just a little something, we can all make a huge difference