What was announced
This article records a project announced in April 2024. It describes the arrangement as it stood at that date, and should be read as a historical record rather than a statement of current contract status.
At the time, co-cre8 was working alongside Burger King UK to implement paper cup recycling trials at selected sites across the UK, diverting paper cups away from general waste and segregating them for onward recycling in the UK.
Burger King is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world, with over 11 million guests walking through its restaurant doors every day, so single-use cup volumes at store level are substantial.
Why front-of-house segregation is the hard part
Paper cup recycling only works if the cup waste is collected free from contamination. In a quick service restaurant that means capturing the cup at the moment the guest finishes with it, and separating the three things that arrive together: the cup, the lid and the residual liquid.
That is a behavioural problem as much as an operational one. If the bin does not make the right action obvious in a second or two, the material is lost to general waste.
The collection stations
co-cre8 specialises in creating bespoke cup collection stations that are engaging, user friendly and customisable to brand specification.
The UK-made freestanding units supplied to Burger King UK feature three transparent tubes with waste-specific apertures, so a user can see at a glance where the cup, the lid and the liquid should go. The tube system was designed so paper cups stack, which makes fuller use of the collection sack, reducing collection costs and associated waste miles.
“The units we have created for Burger King are the perfect example of how we can collaborate with brands to produce something that is so much more engaging than just a bin. The units look fantastic in the Burger King branding, I love how we creatively incorporated the iconic Whopper, making the units completely unique, 'on brand' and something that Burger King can be proud to place in their restaurants”
What was reported at the time
Burger King UK reported that the cup collection units were proving very successful in stores, despite the challenges of segregating waste front of house in a quick service restaurant environment. No published recovery tonnage or capture rate was released with the original announcement.
Where this sits in our work today
The same thinking now sits inside separ8, our separate collection work: design the capture point around the material and the user, then make the downstream logistics follow. Front-of-house cup capture in hospitality and transport settings remains one of the clearest examples of that principle.