Millions of single-use cups are used and discarded in Scotland every year. Only around 4% of these are recycled.
Our response to make it easier for customers to choose to reuse was the Highland Cup Movement. Funded by the Bring It Back Fund, we piloted an innovative reusable cup system with over 20 businesses across the Scottish islands. Some of our businesses and customers told us why they joined the Highland Cup Movement:
Ever since I opened the business, we're thinking about how we can always be a bit more environmentally conscious. And that first year, seeing just how many single-use items can leave just our tiny café, who like, well something got to be done, kind of thing. So I've always been trying to look for schemes and ideas myself to do it. And then I saw the Highland Cup Movement come along, like we've made a plan already that you can just join in on and see how it goes and see what the response is.
We were keen to join the Highland Cup Movement 'cause we don't do single-use cups at the moment. So it was just to offer another option for customers who did want a takeaway drink, that we weren't turning those customers away.
It's really important for Shaka to reduce our single-use packaging consumption. A, it costs us money, and B, we're aware of how much single-use packaging that we use. And so any way we can reduce that — um, as a progressive business, we want to reduce that any way we can. So Vytal is a key part in our, in our, uh, moving forward to reduce the single-use packing.
That is looking for that, a way to do it. And then it seemed pretty well planned out. There didn't seem to be any — and there wasn't any great risk to my business. And it was only benefits to be had from it, for us in our perception, and just for our local environment and wider.
We've seen the benefit for it, um, with the amount of single-use cups we've managed to save. Um, and so our customers are really excited that we're continuing to use the Vytal scheme.
A couple that come in every day with their Vytal cups — and they get soup — um, and they take their Vytal cups away, and then they bring them back the next day and get another portion of soup the next day. So they make it a weekly routine — Monday to Friday they're checking out Vytal cups.
Just gives you, uh, a jumping-off point to open a conversation with anybody and everybody who comes into the café about the environment straight away. And it does lead to wider conversations.
We were so thrilled to cooperate with the Highland Cup Movement and the project Keep Scotland Beautiful. And we're so delighted that it has been such a success. Together with Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Highland Cup Movement, we have saved more than 1,000 single-use plastics that were not trashed into the beautiful Highlands of Scotland.
The Cup Movement in the Highlands was an innovative pilot that we designed to help tackle some of the most significant environmental challenges of our time. We know that we're, facing three emergencies around the environment — to do with litter, climate, and nature. And reducing the amount of single-use cups in circulation is an important part of that, as it not only reduces the chance of them being littered, but it also helps everyone enjoying a takeaway drink contribute to Scotland's transition to Net Zero and a more circular economy.
You know, we've got to protect the planet. It's simple to use — come in, scan it in, um, they make your coffee, you have your coffee, you take it away, you bring it back.
What we're doing today is not for us — it's, everything's never been for us — it's for the next generation.
We'd like to say a huge thanks to the businesses and customers who made the Highland Cup Movement such a success — we look forward to continuing our work to help people choose to reuse and reduce single-use cup consumption.
Join us to help keep Scotland beautiful.
