Keep scotland beautiful initiatives

Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) is an environmental charity committed to making Scotland clean, green and sustainable. They achieve this by tackling a wide range of environmental issues, including reducing the amount of litter on the streets to cutting carbon emissions. They draw together government, local authorities, businesses, community groups and individuals in this challenge.

‘Clean Up Scotland’ is Keep Scotland Beautiful’s national campaign to help build community pride and to make Scotland the cleanest country in Europe by 2020.   The campaign supports people to clean up litter and drive behaviour change.

One of the most visible and most prevalent litter items are single use drinks containers, which are widely used by fast food establishments and coffee shops within the UK.  Along with other litter types, Keep Scotland Beautiful is working on a variety of initiatives to raise awareness of, and tackle the littering of single use cups and drinks containers.

These include initiatives which will:

• bring focus to our throw away culture,
• challenge consumer behaviour,
• challenge producer and retailer roles and responsibilities,
• engage with the current debate surrounding issues of disposable packaging,
• lead the way in trailing innovative and sustainable solutions to promote informed consumer behaviour.

These initiatives will be completed in partnership with other single use cup related companies and organisations. These partnerships include:

Simply Cups / Recoup
This first initiative took place on the 24th/25th October 2017 at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Glasgow.  An exhibition, called #SipDontTip, highlighted the issue of litter and waste associated with single use beverage containers. The exhibit included a huge sculpture made entirely of coffee cups, meant to highlight the 208 million used every year in Scotland. The event also involved exhibits made by school pupils who engaged with the topic. Simply Cups and RECOUP provided installations to showcase the recycling journey of both single use cups and plastic bottles.

Simply Cups
This project, working with Glasgow City Council, will trial a coffee cup recycling collection service from a range of business premises in Glasgow’s ‘Golden Z’, in the city centre. It will be similar to that trialled by Simply Cups and Hubbub in London (Square Mile Challenge). This project is planned for early 2018.
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RECOUP
A joint proposal, aiming to promote plastic packaging recycling, particularly focused on single use beverage containers, is being developed for Spring 2018.  An ambitious two-year project, it will incorporate public engagement and empowerment through citizen science, a travelling plastic sculpture and education opportunities for students and teachers.
 
Paper Cup Recycling & Recovery Group (PCRRG)
This audit will help to develop a more comprehensive set of data for single use cups that are in litter bins around Glasgow. By intensively assessing the cups within bins in Glasgow city centre, Keep Scotland Beautiful has captured data on materials, brands and trends.  A report is due for completion in early 2018.

Editorial contacts are Felicity Read on 01242 282000 felicity@Leapfrogpr.com or: Lucy Boreham on 07825 416 584 or lucy.boreham@anthesisgroup.com.

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