7-Eleven Australia’s partnership with Simply Cups has reached a new milestone with more than 20 million cups rescued from landfill.
More than 660 7-Eleven stores in Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia have cup recycling units. And 100 schools have signed up to the 7-Eleven #CupRescue Schools program, and there are plans for this number to expand.
7-Eleven became the pioneer partner of Simply Cups in 2018, and according to 7-Eleven Australia CEO and Managing Director, Angus McKay, the aim was to reduce the amount of single use cups ending up in landfill.
“We’ve been proud to support Simply Cups in their work to remove single use cups, straws and lids from landfill and turn them into new products,” McKay said.
He said that the milestone is exciting but there’s still more that 7-Eleven wants to achieve with Simply Cups.
“We want every single use cup to be recycled and for people to use re-useable cups wherever they can,” he said.
“7-Eleven is the leader in coffee in convenience, selling more than 80 million cups a year. We want to lead the market in reducing how many single use cups end up in landfill.”
In late 2020, the company launched its 7-Eleven #CupRescue Schools program with the aim of empowering young people to champion reducing single use cups in landfill in their local communities.
“Our community needs more schools participating in the program, and more students advocating to reduce single use cups ending up in landfill. The more schools that know about it, the more cups we can recycle.
“We’re asking any high school that is willing to collect cups and drop them back to their local 7-Eleven to sign up via www.7eleven.com.au/cuprescue.”
“We’ll provide participating schools with free cup collection units to enable students and staff to collect cups at their school. All the school needs to do is collect cups and drop them off at their partnering 7-Eleven store.
“I’d love to get cup recycling at every high school in Australia with a local 7-Eleven.”
More than one billion cups end up in landfill in Australia each year, and Closed Loop Managing Director, Rob Pascoe, says that many people don’t know how to correctly recycle single use cups.
Single use cups can’t be recycled in standard kerbside recycling units due to the plastic coating.
“We are thrilled to have surpassed 20 million cups rescued from landfill. We’d like to thank 7-Eleven, our pioneering partner, who have set-up the most cup collection points, and collected the most cups. The 7-Eleven Australia #CupRescue Schools Program has been a big success and is helping educate the next generation about how to better recycle.”
Recycled cups are upcycled by Closed Loop into a range of products including garden beds, fence posts, wheel stops, and in the near future, road surfaces.