Ecups Limited

We are Helen and Jon Greenwood, both Directors of Ecups Limited and we are delighted to be sharing our story in Government Business UK for the first time with our fab new product. Here’s how we got to where we are now!

In 2018 the University of York decided to make a move towards removing single use paper/plastic cups from their catering outlets for hot drinks. To be fair, it was the student body who insisted that the University do something about all the single use cups that we were using and throwing away 3 minutes later. As Commercial Director of York University at the time, I bought 10,000 bamboo cups from China, via Ecups Limited and Yorcup was born. The scheme removed over 1,000,000 paper/plastic cups, (over 17 tons of single use plastic) in the following 2 years and saved over £250,000 each year in the process.

In 2020 Jon retired from the University and bought Ecups Limited and has since developed the product to what it is now. Designing a new cup from scratch, moving production to the UK and making it 100% recyclable the new cup has been a worldwide success and is not just confined to the HE/FE sectors drawing interest from the Healthcare sector and also popular with motor racing venues and football clubs as well as conference centres around the globe. You will find our cups in over 125 venues around the world. 

We are currently to be found in 18 UK Universities and 20 Colleges, we are Aramark’s reusable cup supplier for Education and Healthcare and we even supplied teams for last year’s Le Mans race as they strive to be eco friendly in a high-octane environment. 

The cups are reusable, returnable and recyclable, dishwasher safe, microwave safe, food safe, designed and manufactured totally in the UK. If you are a Team Leader, Director, Catering Manager, person in charge of a budget, just ask your procurement team how much you are spending each month on single use cups, you will go dizzy, become short of breath and call me 5 minutes after you recover to place an order, guaranteed.

Made from 100% type 5 polypropylene the cups can be recycled in the curb side collection process although in the 6 years since we started making them, we have yet to record a damaged cup. I use my clear cup daily, I have done so for 6 years and it is still like the day we made it. The lid fits snuggly, never a leak, no staining even with the clear cups and its truly resilient, I once smashed it with my golf club by mistake, it just laughed at me…

Focused originally on the student market we also developed an App to link each cup to each individual promoting reuse and prompting when the cup is not being reused.

The new cup is clear and works great for cold drinks inc. bubble teas incorporating a clear domed lid. The clear lids also fit the solid bases so you can have a winter cup for hot drinks and the same base with a clear lid for summer.

Investing in the scheme and buying our cups can save you thousands of pounds as well as taking single use plastic waste out of the waste stream. Reuse and Return is inevitable and where we all need to be to truly have a global impact. Using our cups, made proudly in Yorkshire, tracking and rewarding their use, saving thousands of pounds and removing masses of single use plastics from the waste stream is what in Yorkshire we call a no brainer! 

Find out more at www.ecups.co.uk

or call me direct on 07813964541