Reusable coffee cups

Did you know that the UK throws away 2.5 billion cups a year, and less than 1% of these are recycled?

Unrecycled plastics can take hundreds of years to break down, so we introduced reusable coffee cups at our Warwick Support Centre to encourage everyone to reduce plastic waste.

Recycling and charity are two things that we’ve always been passionate about here at Wolseley UK, so we aimed to combine the two by cutting back on coffee cups, previously at our Leamington Spa Support Centre and now at our new Warwick site.

During the initial launch, we donated £1 from the sale of every cup to Macmillan, as well as offering double loyalty stamps for every purchase thereafter. The incentive proved a hit, with 123 reusable cups sold in just four months.

The coffee bar at Warwick used 15,803 single-use cups five months prior to the launch, and used 8,299 single-use cups five months following the launch. This shows a fantastic 47% reduction in the consumption of single use coffee cups. 

From a recycling perspective, there is still more to do, and our efforts to cut back on cups won't stop there. To help us continue this great initiative and become a more environmentally friendly company, colleagues and visitors to our Warwick Support Centre can now purchase a cup for just £2 in the restaurant and get money off drink purchases.