One year and 200,000 coffee cups diverted from landfill

Delivered in partnership with Closed Loop and part of its Simply Cups Program, Erina Fair introduced coffee cup recycling bins to the centre in August 2019.  

Australians use more than one billion disposable coffee cups each year, which are estimated to be  the second-largest contributor to litter waste, after plastic bottles.  

The majority of takeaway coffee cups end up in landfill, as the plastic lining in the cups can’t be processed in traditional recycling facilities. The plastic lining takes more than 50 years to break down in landfill, and when disposed of incorrectly – in a co-mingled or paper recycling bin – the entire bin  contents are considered contaminated and sent to landfill.  

 A 2019 Central Coast Council sustainability survey showing 85.57% of respondents considered reducing waste and recycling as a very important issue.  

Simply Cups is Australia’s largest cup recycling program and has diverted more than 12 million cups  from landfill since it began in April 2017. Simply Cups works with innovators to transform disposable cups into new products such as car park wheel stops, roadside kerbing, recycled furniture, and now reusable consumer products such as the Stay Tray and the rCUP.  

Quotes to be attributed to Centre Manager, Stephen Ross:  

“We listened to our community’s concern for the environment and their desire for local businesses to be more sustainable. Erina Fair had already been recycling plastic bags, paper, cardboard, organic   waste and harvesting rainwater for landscape irrigation and our amenities.   

“Our goal is to have Erina Fair be carbon neutral by 2030 and we’re on track to deliver this. We’d like to thank our customers and stores for their support and efforts to recycle their disposable cups.”