VANCOUVER — The Return-It to Re-use-It and Recyle-It cup program has expanded in Vancouver. The expansion will see an additional eight collection bins, bringing the total number of bins to 27. The bins are all placed within high pedestrian traffic areas, transit hubs and near other waste-diversion stations, making it easy for consumers to return their re-usable Tim Hortons cups or recycle their single-use cups.
Launched as a pilot in 2022, the program introduced a re-usable Tim Hortons cup that consumers sign up to use and return to one of the drop-off bins. Once the re-usable cups are returned, they’re washed and re-distributed to retail locations for re-use. The program also provided consumers a convenient place to recycle them in commercial and on-street locations.
Additionally, Return-It has opted for an e-bike courier service, SHIFT, which offers a more environmentally friendly solution to help further reduce greenhouse-gas emissions while servicing the bins. The bins have also been re-designed to be more user friendly.
For re-usable cups, once consumers scan a QR code at the bin and return the cup, they’re picked up by SHIFT and brought to a wash plant, re-packed and re-distributed to Tim Hortons cafes and put back into circulation. The single-use cups and lids are transported to local processors and recycled with other paper material and plastics.
“At Return-It, our social purpose is to foster a world where nothing is waste. The Return-It to Re-use-It and Recycle-It cup program is the perfect example of our social purpose come to life,” says Cindy Coutts, president and CEO of Return-It. “We’re proud to work with our brand partners on a program that promotes re-use, recycling and a zero-waste future.”
“We’re proud to partner with Return-It in continuing to work toward building solutions that reduce our use of single-use cups and make re-usable alternatives more convenient and accessible for all Canadians,” says Paul Yang, senior director, Procurement, Sustainability and Packaging at Tim Hortons. “This expansion will help us deliver more impact in Vancouver and continue to inform the development of our national strategies.”
