Say what? Yes you’ve read it correctly – your paper coffee cup will be recycled into toilet paper. Since 2020 Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is recycling used paper products as raw material for new sanitary paper products.

At WUR, almost 4 million cardboard cups and 17 million paper towels are used annually. All these used paper cups and towels are collected and transported to the factory of WEPA Nederland B.V. There, the paper fibers are reused as raw materials for paper towels and toilet paper which will eventually be returned to WUR. This production process is free of harmful chemicals and meets all the cradle-to-cradle principles. Click here to find out more.

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Some figures* on our annual environmental savings we thought you might like:

  • We save more than 900,000 litre water
  • We save more than 60,000 KWh energy
  • We save more than 60,000 kg CO2 emissions

* Data published on 23 January 2020

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Next steps? Replacing the plastic cups in the educational buildings is next on the agenda. Because of the type of coffee machines in those buildings, paper cups are not yet in use there. Eventually we want to use the same recyclable cup on all WUR premises.

What can you do? Separate your cups in the bins without trash such as stirring rods, teabags and food waste inside them helps a lot! Or even better, you can bring your own cup to the campus or use a Billie Cup!

Read more about this process on our website.