The packaging we deliver our products in is important to us. That is why we work hard to champion and find solutions that help make our primary packaging easier to recycle, and through collaboration and innovation with industry partners, we continue to drive forward practical progress in the sustainability of our packaging.
Recycling coffee cups
Paper cups play an important role in making drinks accessible on-the-go. They're lightweight, hygienic, and widely used, but their end-of-life journey is complex.
Most paper cups are designed with a thin plastic lining to prevent leaks, which makes them more durable but also harder to recycle through standard paper streams. In the UK, only a limited number of facilities can effectively separate these materials, and recycling systems can vary across local authorities.
We want to do what we can to make this easier and encourage others to follow. That's why we're advocating for better recycling infrastructure, continue to support collaborative recycling initiatives and exploring new technology in cup design to make it easier to recycle.
Partner to collect and recycle
In 2018, we helped co-found the UK's National Cup Recycling Scheme (NCRS), which is now supported by many of the UK's major coffee chains and restaurants. Through this scheme, we help fund paper cup recycling by offering waste collectors an incentive for every tonne of cups they collect for recycling.
Thanks to collective action across all participating brands, over 200 million cups have been recycled through the NCRS since 2018.
We encourage our customers to recycle any paper takeaway cup via one of our participating stores up and down the country. Simply drop it off and we will help ensure it is recycled.
Reducing the impact of packaging
We are focusing our efforts to cutdown packaging waste by minimising unnecessary plastic, and using recycled materials where possible.
Over the past few years, we’ve been on a journey to reduce waste through improved design on our iconic red cups and lids:-
In the UK, our coffee cups including the red waffle wraps are made from sustainably sourced wood fibre (FSC or PEFC certified), which keeps drinks hot without needing an extra cardboard sleeve.
Our cold cups in the UK contain 50% recycled PET plastic.
In Wales, we’ve introduced fibre lids that can be recycled in the paper waste stream.
Promoting Reuse
We have been on a journey to encourage reuse with customers across our stores. Bring in any reusable cup and we’ll prepare your drink in your cup. When you use a reusable cup in our stores, you’ll get rewarded - Costa Club members*get their free drink faster with a reusable cup. When you use a reusable cup, we'll give you an extra bean - for free! This means, you only need to buy 5 drinks to get your free one on us.
In 2022, we ran a trial of our very own returnable cup initiative called ‘BURT’, which stands for Borrow, Use, Reuse, Take back. It was our first integrated on-the-go returnable cup trial and took place across 14 stores in Glasgow. The trial not only helped customers who may have left their own cup at home or did not want to carry a reusable cup around all day.
Building on this, in 2025, we partnered with Hubbub and Reposit to launch Borrow Cup, a returnable cup trial in Glasgow. Customers simply pay a £1 deposit to borrow a cup, then return it to any participating store to swap, refill, or get their deposit back. Find out more here.
We continued to learn from these returnable cup initiatives and look for solutions that work for both our customers and baristas in-store.
Climate
Aiming to reduce our carbon emissions in line with climate science.
