David Hoskin, Chairman, got things moving with a review of the year so far. Good news for many operators was the fact the dependence by Save A Cup on revenue generated from its Environmental Charge continued to fall. "Back in 2004", explained David, "the Environmental Charge represented 61 per cent of the organisation's total income. This year that figure will be down to a staggering 29 per cent." Instead, revenue from other sources, including the sale of collection sacks, bins, flake/pellet, PRNs, plus the administration and site collection charges, is steadily providing more and more of the company's essential income - currently expected to total over £1.1 million this year.

Indeed, the administration and site collection charges are new additions to the revenue stream, while Save a Cup bravely increased the charge for its collection sacks recently from 35p to 65p, continuing the move to transfer more of the cost of running the scheme away from the operator and towards the user. David reported that there has been virtually no loss of orders for sacks following the price increase.

New collections

The job of announcing the more diverse collection plans fell to Graham Pascoe, General Manager. He pointed out that collections of the traditional PS-06 polystyrene cups have been steadily falling off, in line with sales of new ones. It is a different story, though, with the PP-05 polypropylene cups, of the kind preferred by the water industry, Save a Cup collections of which are growing.

Much awaited news of paper cup collections followed. Trials are ongoing, with cups being collected and bulked up for trial stock. There is a need to increase the tonnage, though. The company relinquishes ownership of the material once it arrives at the pulp mill.

There has, explained Graham, been a call for Save a Cup to collect the pods and sachets that are becoming increasingly popular. These are now being collected and bulked up and, when there is sufficient stock it will be transferred to an Energy from Waste facility for incineration - their construction, he explained, makes this the only alternative for pods and sachets, other than landfill.

One of the biggest pieces of news to be announced at the presentation was the launch of composting at the end of May. Save a Cup now offers a collection service for the bio-degradable variant of paper vend cups (which comply with EU specification EN13432), which operates via a range of industrial composting facilities. A number of composters around the country have already agreed to the scheme and trials conducted. "It is till early days", explained Graham, "but the future for composting certainly looks very promising."

Moving on to yet another area, Graham announced: "We are often asked about the collection of cans. We are now looking at the feasibility of doing this and are having discussions with Alupro. Again, it is early days, but a depot infrastructure is being planned and it may be possible to launch a service in the third quarter of the year".

As David Hoskin pointed out, the collection of cans would represent the first product that Save a Cup has ever collected that has a residual value in its own right.

The meeting then returned to the subject of paper cup collections, with a brief presentation from Neil Whittall, of Huhtamaki, in which he spoke of the Paper Cup Recovery Recycling Group. This, as originally announced by Susan Nash, of Kraft Europe, in January, has been established by a number of organisations, including Kraft, Huhtamaki, Stora Enso and Bender, to handle the recovery and recycling of used paper beverage cups. It is likely that Save a Cup will be collecting paper cups on the group's behalf, and both organisations will be sharing knowledge.

The final speaker was Roger Williams, Save a Cup Director and Managing Director of Coinadrink, who reminded delegates why Save a Cup was created in the first place and the various external influences that have shaped the organisation along the way. The launch of the controversial (at the time) Environmental Charge in June 1999 resulted from moving the onus of funding the scheme away from the cup manufacturers towards the operators and users. "It was set at 10p in 1999, increased to 18p in 2003 and has remained at that level ever since."

Roger went on to underline the importance of making the Save a Cup service as effective as possible for operator customers, while maximising the new sources of revenue like sacks, administration charges and site charges, and identifying new ones.

He made the point that a typical operator buying 5,000,000 cups per year currently pays £900 to Save a Cup. For this every customer is entitled to have its used PS cups collected. The same operator, he explained, is likely to have about 270 hot drinks machines, averaging 400 drinks per week, spread around 200 customers.

Roger also underlined the fall in dependence upon the Environmental Charge as a source of revenue, but pointed out that it is too early to abolish it, suggesting that it would be necessary to attract new revenue perhaps the equivalent of doubling the current sack charge.

The presentation was rounded off by David Hoskin, who took a number of questions from delegates, including a request from Brian Tustain, of AVS, to at least reduce the Environmental Charge as a gesture in these tough economic times. David's response, echoed by Roger Williams, was that it remains a firm target to replace the charge with other revenue streams, but the time is not yet right, financially speaking.

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