The Whitstable Cup
What?
The Whitstable Cup is a reusable cup for takeaway drinks, available in cafes and venues across the town.
Customers simply pay £1 deposit to borrow a Whitstable Cup, enjoy their drink and then return the empty cup to any participating venue to get their £1 back.
The cup is washed ready to use again... and again... and again...
Who?
The Whitstable Cup has been set up by Plastic Free Whitstable and The Umbrella Café CIC, with the initial phase funded by Canterbury City Council’s RISE Innovation fund.
We’re a not-for-profit scheme aiming to reduce single-use takeaway cups in our seaside town.
Why?
Less than 1% of single-use cups get recycled (the mixture of paper and plastic make recycling difficult).
7 million single-use cups get thrown away every day in the UK.
Half a million cups end up as litter every day.
Although compostable cups are an improvement, most of them end up in landfill or incineration as we do not have the infrastructure to compost them.
Instead: a circular economy!
What?
The Whitstable Cup is a reusable cup for takeaway drinks, available in cafes and venues across the town.
Customers simply pay £1 deposit to borrow a Whitstable Cup, enjoy their drink and then return the empty cup to any participating venue to get their £1 back.
The cup is washed ready to use again... and again... and again...
Who?
The Whitstable Cup has been set up by Plastic Free Whitstable and The Umbrella Café CIC, with the initial phase funded by Canterbury City Council’s RISE Innovation fund.
We’re a not-for-profit scheme aiming to reduce single-use takeaway cups in our seaside town.
Why?
Less than 1% of single-use cups get recycled (the mixture of paper and plastic make recycling difficult).
7 million single-use cups get thrown away every day in the UK.
Half a million cups end up as litter every day.
Although compostable cups are an improvement, most of them end up in landfill or incineration as we do not have the infrastructure to compost them.
Instead: a circular economy!
How it works
Links
Whitstable’s Marine Environment Group organises monthly beach cleans, every last Sunday 10.30am
Refill.org.uk - download the app to find out where you can refill your water bottle
Surfers Against Sewage - grassroots organisation tackling plastic pollution
Shop by the Sea supports shopping local in Whitstable and Tankerton
Thanks
We are grateful to support and advice from Ali and Sophie at Shrewsbury Cup.
Farm & Harper for support and leading the way with their own reusable cup scheme.
Vicki and John from Hughes Design in Whitstable who created the great design on the cups and were a joy to work with.
Jonathan from Website in a Day CIC who designed this website with skill and generosity.
Charlotte from The Umbrella Centre for designing our eye-catching publicity materials.
Jenni from Planet B Social for volunteering her time, enthusiasm and much-needed expertise for our social media campaign.
Joe McDaniel for beautiful photography.
Dani Hofman for advice and the generous loan of her cups for our earlier pilot with fetchhCup.
Canterbury City Council for funding this initial phase
And of course, all those good folk who volunteer their time for Plastic Free Whitstable.
