Coffee cup competition winners announced

ODS worked closely with Oxford City Council and the Hubbub charity to devise and deliver the competition – a clever way to create awareness around an initiative that will both encourage people to recycle on-the-go coffee cups and stimulate necessary conversations about the climate emergency. 

The winners' designs will join those of professional artists being displayed on the 40 bins that are to be installed in the city centre, Headington and Summertown. A total of 19 winning designs have been selected, by entrants of all ages and abilities, from 7 years old to over 50. 

The names of the winners are available at www.oxford.gov.uk/acupofinspiration 

The designs aim to:

• make people notice the bins so that more coffee cups are re-used and recycled in the city
• inspire everyone to take positive action to help combat climate change and minimise their personal impact on the environment
• create pride in Oxford
• demonstrate Oxford’s commitment to responding to the climate emergency.

ODS will install the dedicated on-street coffee cup recycling bins in high footfall areas alongside bins for bottles and cans. The programme aims to recycle 6.35 tonnes of coffee cups, roughly equivalent to 350,000 paper cups, in the first year.

Tom Hayes, Cabinet Member for Zero Carbon Oxford and one of the competition judging panel said: "Oxford now has the opportunity to recycle coffee cups, bottles and cans. It’s brilliant that the recycling bins will be unmissable, all because they will showcase artwork from our community. As one of the judges in the competition, it was exceptionally hard to pick winners, but I’m delighted that these winning designs will prompt people to properly dispose of their waste."

The scheme has been made possible by a grant from Hubbub, one of the UK’s most prominent waste reduction charities. This year Hubbub partnered with Starbucks to launch The Cup Fund, a new grant fund that aims to kickstart paper cup recycling and encourage re-use across the UK. The fund will support twelve projects, one of which is ODS’s successful bid for Oxford last year.

Bill Byfield, Recycling Project Coordinator at ODS, is leading the coffee cup recycling bin project. He said: “I want to thank everyone who took part in our competition. We’ve had some fantastic entries that will make people think about their impact on the environment.

“According to government estimates, around 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown into landfill or incinerated every single year in the UK. We’re really excited to have the opportunity to help to reverse this trend, and encourage more re-use and recycling in Oxford”