Neil Whittall
Following its inaugural formal meeting, the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group (PCRRG) is pleased to announce the appointment Neil Whittall, of Huhtamaki, as its Chair and Executive Board member, along with fellow elected Executive Board members: Adrian Pratt, of Benders Paper Cups, Oliver Rosevear, of Costa Coffee, Matt Spencer, of Caffè Nero and Bradley Smith of Grundon Waste Management.
Building on work previously undertaken by the PCRRG, the Executive Board has chosen to focus initial efforts on two key parts of the paper cup supply chain and has set up working groups accordingly. One working group will consider how consumers recycle their paper cups, initially within a specific location, and will test what influences their behaviour; the other working group will focus on the logistical, technical and economic viability associated with sorting and reprocessing used paper cups to obtain materials of an appropriate quality that can be reused in the paper supply chain.
Neil Whittall, of Huhtamaki, who will be leading the working group for the ‘upstream’ project, said, “I am really looking forward to working with fellow members to effectively target and understand consumers’ behaviour at each touch point and how we can affect their actions to capture enough of the right materials, with low levels of contamination.”
Adrian Pratt, of Benders and working group leader for the ‘downstream’ project, said, “It’s exciting to get a cross-sector team together to undertake a trial to understand the economic viability of transporting and reprocessing collected paper cups for use back in the paper supply chain. We hope to truly establish the probable mix of materials that reprocessors would be expected to handle and the likely outputs from the sorting stages, in order to assess the potential for the project to be viably scaled up.”
LRS continues to manage and coordinate the PCRRG and its activities and is supporting the implementation of the working group projects, which will be undertaken using controlled trials over the next three to six months. Organisations from across the paper cup supply chain that are interested in participating in a PCRRG project should contact Dee Moloney, Managing Director, LRS Consultancy on dee.moloney@lrsconsultancy.com.
More information will become available at www.pcrrg.uk
