Meet our recycling hero – Sweet Tub Teddy
A 6-year-old boy has earned the nickname “Sweet Tub Teddy” after collecting more than 2,500 plastic tubs to support our Tub2Pub recycling scheme.
One of our key specialities is turning hard-to-recycle materials into useful products that further support the circular economy. These programs often require the participation of the general public, but one young lad has gone well beyond the call of duty by collecting thousands of plastic confectionary tubs for our Tub2Pub scheme.
Millions of chocolate, sweet, and biscuit tubs are sold in the UK every year, particularly during the Christmas season. These tubs are made from virgin polypropylene, which can be tricky to recycle and often end up being sent to landfill or incineration.
In January 2021, we teamed up with Greene King and DCW Polymers to tackle this issue. We devised an innovative campaign to collect and recycle these tubs into garden furniture, with the proceeds from sales donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Every January and February since 2021, consumers have been asked to drop off their used tubs at any Greene King pub, hotel and restaurant across the UK. Without their support, the scheme would not have achieved the results it has. Over the last five years, Tub2Pub has collected 26,253kg of plastic, which is around 230,000 tubs, raising £23,908 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Which leads us to our recycling hero. Six-year-old Teddy from Hampshire has, with the help of his mum, Laura, collected a staggering 2,500 tubs.
“I’m one little boy and it started with one tub and one dream to save the planet, and now look how many we’ve got.”
Teddy said: “I’d heard we can’t recycle these tubs in our normal recycling bin but I wanted to change that so I can save the world.”
He then wrote a letter to his school, which in turn sent out a letter to parents, and together with his mum Laura he put up posters at local businesses.
Describing himself as an “eco warrior on a mission”, Teddy stepped up his campaign by collecting tubs from people’s houses and even rescuing them from bins. His also enlisted the help of his grandad who visited the local tip to save any tubs that people had discarded.
In recognition of his phenomenal achievement, Teddy’s school has been gifted a bench made from his recycled plastic tubs. The ‘buddy bench’ came with a plaque reading: “With thanks to Teddy for your outstanding efforts contributing to Tub2Pub 2025 from Greene King, co-cre8, DCW Polymers and Macmillan Cancer Support.”
“Everyone can make a difference, it doesn’t matter how small you are,” said Teddy, as the bench was unveiled.
Teddy also caught the attention of the national media and was interviewed on BBC South Today. He also spent a day at DCW Polymers and even helped out loading tubs on the conveyor belt ready for shredding.
We couldn’t praise Teddy, and all our other recycling heroes, enough!
Read all about Teddy on BBC News.