Drive to reduce disposable cups usage at university sees less sent to landfill and thousands of pounds raised

Enjoying a cuppa at Wrexham Glyndŵr University is helping staff and students do their bit for the environment.

As part of a drive to cut down on the amount of waste being sent to landfill, the university is working alongside catering partner Aramark to encourage staff and students to stop using disposable cups and switch to reusable alternatives.

One way in which this has been done is by adding an extra charge on for each hot drink served in a non-reusable cup – with the proceeds being ploughed back into environmentally-friendly ‘Husk Up cups’ instead.

This has helped raise £8,250 over the past academic year – along with seeing 332kg of cups being saved from landfill.

Wrexham Glyndwr University Director of Operations, Lynda Powell, said: “Over the past academic year we’ve already saved an impressive amount of waste from going to landfill through making one small change to the way our drinks are served.

“A fifth of the hot drinks we sell are now served in a re-usable cup.

“However, our aim has always been to cut that level of waste far further, so we have invested the proceeds from the last year’s charges directly back into purchasing 2,000 Wrexham Glyndwr University-branded ‘Husk Up cups.’”

The microwave and dishwasher safe Husk Up Cups are made from rice husk – not plastic – and are biodegradable, containing no melamine or bisphenol A.

“The cups are being provided to staff and students on a first-come-first-served basis and have proved very popular – with the first batch on offer being all being taken up within an hour,” added Lynda.

“We will be making more cups available soon – and will carry on encouraging people to switch to a sustainable option, both for their drinks and with re re-usable food containers which we will be unveiling imminently.

“Our cups campaign is just a small part of a wider programme of work we are doing at Glyndwr to manage our impact on the environment.

“Our commitment to sustainability is embedded in our culture – and saw us rise more than thirty places in this year’s People and Planet University League to be rated at 47 in their list of the UK’s greenest universities.”

More information about Wrexham Glyndwr university’s work on sustainability can be found here.