#TakeItBack

It is estimated that over 388 million single-use cups are used in Scotland each year*. That's a lot of cups! At best, barely 4% of these cups are recycled.  In many areas, there just isn't the infrastructure in place to recycle cups. Unfortunately, that means that most single-use cups end up as waste: in landfill, the incinerator or left as litter.

Through Cup Movement, Keep Scotland Beautiful is working hard to increase the options available to recycle Scotland's single-use cups.

In 2026, we are taking Cup Movement to Edinburgh: building on previous work in Glasgow and Dundee, we are now working with the National Cup Recycling Scheme (NCRS) and the City of Edinburgh Council highlighting Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Greggs and McDonald's stores in central Edinburgh, to raise awareness and increase opportunities to recycle single-use cups through both #TakeItBack (where you can take any brand of single-use cup back to these stores for recycling) and new on-street cup recycling bins.    

Our Edinburgh intervention focuses on tackling cup waste and changing behaviours around key transport hubs across Edinburgh, so our intervention is focused on the areas between Waverley and Haymarket train stations and the tram line between these locations.  We are also working with the stores on the commuter routes to these stations.  

* Zero Waste Scotland (2022) Consumption of Single-use Disposable Beverage Cups in Scotland 

Typical single-use hot drink cups can not go into standard recycling bins or be recycled at home and while we would love for reusable cups to be the norm for a hot drink on the go, unfortunately, we are not quite there yet. So, even if you forget your reusable cup, you can still help reduce the impact of single use if you #TakeItBack to participating stores. 

Just hand your cup back to store staff for recycling, use the in-store cup recycling bins, or keep an eye out for the new (coming soon) on-street dedicated cup recycling bins. 

You can take any brand of plastic-lined paper cup back to the participating stores to be recycled.  You can find the participating Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Greggs and McDonald's stores on the map below. 

The exciting new aspect of this intervention is the introduction of on-street bins around some of Edinburgh's key transport hubs.  The cup-only recycling bins will be coming soon to Market Street, Waverley Bridge and Haymarket.

You can also find the locations where you can recycle your cup wherever you are in the UK on the National Cup Recycling Scheme's map.

In July 2023, we teamed up with the NCRS and Starbucks to encourage people who use single-use takeaway cups to #TakeItBack to one of 121 participating stores across Glasgow and Dundee, regardless of brand, ensuring that cups were properly recycled and not sent to landfill. 

To find out more about the intervention, you can download our case study, watch our reel or keep reading below. 

• Staff engagement and training are essential at a store level.
• Clear, visible in-store campaign signage must be in place with any in-store cup recycling infrastructure also clearly visible.
• Data from stores on the volume of cups sent for recycling is essential.
• Public education is needed to reduce consumption of single-use, as well as on the correct disposal of single-use cups. 

We are using all these learnings as we take Cup Movement to Edinburgh. 

If you would like to get involved, or for any enquiries, please email cups@KeepScotlandBeautiful.org