City to Sea Partnerships: A Returnable Future

Joining forces to pioneer a Returnable Future.

Returnable Cup Pioneers

We’re are delighted to announce a key partnership for Circular&Co. We believe wholeheartedly that the future is returnable, and are stoked to be working with City to Sea, the environmental not-for-profit behind the award-winning Refill Campaign, World Refill Day and more planet-protecting, behaviour change campaigns. Our mutual ambition is to reduce waste and tackle the millions of single-use coffee cups that are used, and discarded, every year. 

Working together, and using our shared expertise in the reuse space, we’ll collaborate to create a ‘Returnable Cup Blueprint for the Future.’ This ground-breaking guide is designed to show the world an alternative future is possible and crucially how to get there. It will provide businesses, communities, and local authorities with the knowledge, guidance, and practical advice they need to take action where they live.

To give this project some context, here in the UK as a population we use a whopping 10,000 coffee cups every two minutes. This leads to a massive amount of waste, but also in having the manufacture these cups, puts tons of needless CO2 into our atmosphere. This is why we at Circular&Co. are working on all levels to address this waste stream , whether increasing the value of the waste material by including it a s manufacturing material for our Reusable Circular Coffee Cups, or more fundamentally replacing the whole system with a Returnable Cup option. The Circular Returnable Cup offers a long-term solution to our single-use culture and helping people enjoy hot drinks on-the-go, without the waste.

The Returnable Blueprint

In order to drive real, long-lasting change, our partnership with City to Sea has one big objective, to publish a really useful guide to how to implement a Returnable Cup scheme depending on the size and nature of your business. This ground-breaking piece of research will analyse a myriad of different schemes and approaches, aiming to provide the industry with something inciteful, helping bring the future of Returnables closer. ‘The Returnable Cup Blueprint’, will be year-long project to deliver a practical guide to implementing a returnable cup scheme. We want to show the world that an alternative future is possible and, crucially, how we can get there.

The project will build on the work both organisations are doing on returnable cup schemes, including the Bristol Refill Return Cup and a number of pilots that Circular & Co are involved with in the UK with other organisations including Re-universe, Blenheim Palace Foundation Trust, and National Trust.

Circular&Co. are also the exclusive returnable cup provider for the Refill Return Cup which will be launching in Bristol this year.

Jo Morley, Head of Marketing & Campaigns at City to Sea 

“We’re thrilled to be working with Circular&Co. on this game-changing project to reduce waste and tackle the millions of single-use coffee cups that are used and discarded every year. Our organisations share the same vision of a circular future, where we value our resources, and where refill and reuse are affordable and accessible for everyone. We know that communities and businesses want to be doing more to tackle waste, but often don’t know where to start. The Returnable Cup Blueprint will provide the solution, sharing the knowledge, guidance and practical advice needed to introduce a returnable cup scheme in their local area.”

Adam Trethewy, Commercial & Returnable Solutions Lead at Circular&Co. 

“At Circular&Co. we are striving for global change, bringing people and organisations together to build a waste-free, endless world. As world leaders in both reusable and returnable packaging solutions we are pioneering the shift away from single-use to address the three core challenges that humanity faces; rising CO2 emissions, consumption of resources and pollution.  With so many shared values, a partnership with City to Sea was inevitable at some point and we are delighted to be working with them on the Returnable Cup Blueprint.  They are the perfect partner to take this message to their network of businesses and community groups across the UK and beyond.  Together we are taking real steps towards a sustainable future.”