College tackling waste with reusable cups

The NPTC Group of Colleges has launched a new initiative to encourage staff, students and visitors to ditch single-use coffee cups in a bid to reduce litter and waste.

Reusable coffee cups are on sale at four NPTC Group campuses; Neath College, Afan College, Brecon Beacons College and Newtown College.

Over 103,000 single use cups had been bought by the group between September 2018 and July 2019. To tackle this “throw away” culture, customers will now benefit from a 10p discount on every hot drink purchased when using a reusable cup.

Many single-use cups are made of a difficult-to-recycle mix of paper and plastic, so the majority end up in landfill or as litter. In the UK, it is estimated that 2.5 billion single-use cups are thrown away each year, with the vast majority – around 99.75% – not recycled.

As part of the Caru Cymru project, Keep Wales Tidy staff will be supporting the college to run a campaign to help raise awareness of the issue of single-use plastic, change the behaviour of staff and students towards reusables and reduce the levels of litter in and around the four campuses.

College Assistant Principal for Corporate Services Catherine Lewis said:

“This initiative is one of many that we are undertaking to help make a difference to the environment. The students are on board as well as the staff so hopefully we can help reduce the number of single use cups that are purchased during the year.”

Louise Tambini, Deputy Chief Executive of Keep Wales Tidy said:

“We’re delighted that the NPTC Group of Colleges is making a positive difference to our environment by introducing reusable cups. By tackling the unnecessary use of disposable plastics, we hope it will inspire other colleges and education centres in Wales to take action”.