To increase recycling rates in the city, Oxford City Council is introducing coffee cup recycling bins which will be placed in high footfall areas alongside bins for bottles and cans. Single use coffee cups remain popular despite the increase in reusable coffee cups, so giving residents and visitors the opportunity to recycle their single use coffee cups is an important part of increasing recycling. Oxford City Council hope that in the first year of the project roughly 350,000 coffee cups will be recycled through the scheme.
To raise the profile of the scheme and the bins themselves, Oxford City Council partnered with Hubbub, an environmental charity, to ask school children in the city to design artwork for the bins. 19 pieces of artwork have been picked, and it is hoped that not only will the art draw attention to the bins and encourage people to recycle their coffee cups, but it will also get people talking and thinking about the climate emergency.
