Glasgow Airport
A specialist cup stream, introduced through Keep Scotland Beautiful's Cup Movement, gave the airport a route its incumbent contractor could not offer.
Several retail outlets selling hot drinks meant used cups were clogging bins, and customer confusion over which bin to use was contaminating the airport's dry mixed recycling.
Seven three-tube wall-mounted cup bins were placed within retail outlets, and more than 36,000 cups were collected between October 2019 and March 2020.
Glasgow Airport is part of AGS Airports Ltd, the second largest airport group in the UK. A study by York Aviation calculated that the activities and connectivity associated with the airport support over 30,000 jobs and £1.44 billion of economic activity across Scotland.
A key component of Scotland's transport infrastructure, the airport carried nine million passengers in 2019.
Waste minimisation and recycling is a key component of Glasgow Airport's Sustainability Policy, but with several retail outlets all selling hot beverages, used takeaway cups were becoming a major waste challenge.
Not only were waste bins being clogged with the voluminous cups, but customers were frequently confused about which bin to place them in, often resulting in contamination of the dry mixed recycling.
Because used cups are a very specialised waste stream, the airport was not able to recycle them through its incumbent contractor. Through Keep Scotland Beautiful's Cup Movement recycling initiative, Glasgow Airport was introduced to Simply Cups, one of the scheme's key collaborators.
In August 2019 Glasgow Airport became a full member of the Simply Cups recycling service, giving it access to a regular cup collection service and a wide choice of cup recycling bins. An initial order of seven three-tube wall-mounted cup bins was placed, for siting within seven of the airport's retail outlets. Each bin has separate apertures for cups, lids and liquids, so the materials collected can all be recycled without contamination.
The airport then secured buy-in from each retailer to assume responsibility for emptying and cleaning its own bin. Sacks were provided for the used cups which, when filled, were stored in large 110 litre bins ready for collection.
Between October 2019, when the new cup bins were first put in place, and March 2020, more than 36,000 used cups were collected and diverted from landfill or incineration.
Cups collected between October 2019 and March 2020
Three-tube wall-mounted bins within retail outlets
Full membership of the Simply Cups recycling service
“Working with Simply Cups to implement the whole cup collection and recycling process has been great. The cup bins are working really well, and because the signage is clear and concise there is almost zero contamination. It is also now clear and obvious for passengers to understand where they should dispose their coffee cups after use. I've also been really impressed with Simply Cups' service; there was always clear communication and problems were resolved quickly and without any fuss.”
The thinking behind this work runs through the rest of what we do.
