The Cup Co-program a program founded by Stora Enso and Huhtamaki to capture the value of used paper cups through recycling at an industrial scale has welcomed its first partners. The new partners include McDonald’s, SSP - The Food Travel Experts, C2 Centre, and the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB), all further supporting the initiative’s ability to significantly increase paper cup recycling volumes in Europe.

The Cup Collective initiative, which is the first of its kind in Europe, aims to recycle half a billion paper cups in Europe within the first two years. The first paper cup collection bins are now available in public venues throughout Brussels including restaurants and transit hubs. Collected cups are recycled in facilities in the region including Stora Enso’s site in Langerbrugge, Belgium. 

Partnership in the Cup Collective is open to a wide range of stakeholders both within and outside of the value chain including food service providers, retailers, transportation services, waste collectors and management services, and other actors across Europe. The initiative today gathered its new partners and other interested stakeholders in Brussels, Belgium for a panel discussion to highlight the program’s implementation.

Speaking on the day of the event in Brussels, Peter Goodwin, managing director and co-founder of co-cre8, the firm managing the Cup Collective program, said, “It is time to make paper cup recycling an easy, everyday activity. We are now able to provide a platform to collect and capture the value of paper cups at an industrial scale and are calling businesses to get on board and become part of the Cup Collective program.”