DEBERT, NS – Tim Hortons has become the first quick-service restaurant in Canada to introduce a “closed loop” program that recycles its own hot beverage cups into take-out trays.
The Cup-to-Tray program has the capacity to recycle 100 percent of Tim Hortons' annual Nova Scotia cup inventory and is just one aspect of the company's Making a True Difference corporate social responsibility vision. For that vision to be successful, Tim Hortons is now appealing to its guests by asking them to recycle paper cups in Tim Hortons restaurants.
“Having this process of turning used cups into recyclable trays and diverting those cups from landfills is a great success and one we are proud of," said Greg Smith, senior manager, regional marketing – Atlantic Canada, at Tim Hortons.
Smith added guests are encouraged to bring their reusable mugs to Tim Hortons for a 10-cent discount on coffee and by separating all their waste — cups, lids, trays, organics — at new in-restaurant and drive-thru recycling units.
The Cup-to-Tray program is operating in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the intention of rolling it out across the rest of the province and New Brunswick in the coming year. All Prince Edward Island restaurants already divert their restaurant-collected paper packaging from landfills through composting.
In other parts of Canada, cups and other paper packaging are collected at Tim Hortons restaurants and diverted from landfills where possible. In total, there are more than 650 Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada offering cup-recycling or composting programs.
“When we started, no one knew if our cups could be recycled or composted -now with the help of our partners we have learned that both can be done, and we have already been engaging our guests to help us divert cups from landfills in many markets across Canada,” said Smith. “All these learnings may now be applied to helping our restaurants in remaining markets either begin or move further ahead in their cup diversion programs — from starting new cup recycling or composting programs to implementing full cup-to-tray recycling in restaurants with existing programs."