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How many coffee cups were thrown away in October?
By: Ellie Evans
Last updated: Tuesday, 17 December 2024
More and more coffee lovers are bringing their own cups to our cafes on campus.
Last month, 14% of people who bought a hot drink took their own mug – including 85 staff and students who bought a cup through our returnable cup scheme. In the Veg Bowl @ Dhaba, one in three people who bought a hot drink in October used their own cup or mug, while nearly one in five did the same in Doctor’s Orders.
But we threw away an incredible 23,389 disposable cups last month in just five of our cafes which are part of the returnable cup scheme (Eat Central, ACCA Café, Botanical Café, the Library Café and the Veg Bowl @ Dhaba) – 3,357 more than in October 2023.
The total from all our Sussex Uni Food cafes was even higher: a staggering 37,177 disposable cups went into the bin. If these were stacked up, the pile would be almost as tall as the Empire State Building.
Time to ditch the disposables
“We all need to play our part in reducing the amount of waste that goes to incineration,” says Sandra Juan Delgado, Sustainability Manager for our catering partners Sussex Uni Food.
“As well as the 85 people who joined the returnable cup scheme, more than 40 people bought a reusable cup in Arts Café which is really good news.
“But there is still a shocking amount going into the bin: because more people are getting coffee with us, there were actually 4,059 MORE disposable cups thrown away in all our cafes in October 2024 than in October 2023.”
In IDS Bar & Kitchen, the picture is a little different: in October, more than half of all hot drinks were consumed in proper crockery in the cafe - but around a third went into disposable cups.
What are we doing about this?
We are working on recycling disposable cups and lids as well as expanding other recycling options here on campus, as this A-Z of recycling explains.
Our Sussex Recycles campaign aims to help students and staff better understand what they can recycle, with new posters in all our residences on campus and stickers on the shared bins.
We are committed to recycling half of all our waste on campus by the end of 2025 – and you can help us to reduce waste by bringing your own cup if you’re buying hot drinks on campus.
You’ll save 20p every time you bring your own cup to a Sussex Uni Food café, and if you pay £3.95 to be part of the returnable cup scheme you can swap your cup for a token any time to avoid carrying it around!
We’ll be giving away 25 tokens for the returnable cup scheme (which includes a free coffee!) in January - to take part, just follow @sustainablesussexuni and @sussexunifood on Instagram and look out for the giveaway.
This work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production). You can read more about our work on the SDGs here.