Our Story

Inspiration

brummie cup was brought to life by Plastic Free Moseley and Kings Heath (PFMKH), a volunteer run environmental group set up in 2018 to raise awareness of plastic pollution and to help their local community reduce its reliance on single use plastic.

After watching world governments fail to take sufficient action to tackle the climate crisis at COP26, PFMKH wanted to increase their own impact. Inspired by the hugely successful Shrewsbury Cup, PFMKH decided to set up a Birmingham-based, reusable coffee cup deposit return scheme.

Disposable coffee cups are generally made of both card and plastic, making them very hard to recycle.  Over 7 million are used a day in the UK, with over 500,000 a day ending up as litter.  The hot drinks industry were not taking sufficient action to reduce disposable cup usage. Setting up a cup scheme that increased the use of reusable cups seemed like a natural fit with PFMKH’s objectives and so brummie cup was born.

Groundwork

In December 2021, PFMKH applied to LoveBrum for a grant to fund an initial batch of reusable cups.  The idea was that customers would pay a deposit to have their takeaway drink in one of the cups, receiving the deposit back on return of the cup.  PFMKH came top in a public vote winning first prize of £2,000.

A small brummie cup committee of three volunteers was formed: Ben, Shirley and Izzy. They spent the next six months planning how the reusable coffee cup scheme would work.  Shrewsbury Cup provided invaluable insight.  Conversations were held with local cafés. Local artist Arlene Adams volunteered her time to design the cup logo. 

Towards the end of the six months a batch of 14 fl oz cups were ordered. 

Reusable Coffee Cup Deposit Return Scheme

brummie cup launched in June 2022 at four participating cafés in south Birmingham: Maison Mayci, Cartlands Tea Rooms, Kitchen Garden Café  and The Shed in Cotteridge Park.  During an initial trial period of three months Maison Mayci sold 50% of their takeaway drinks in reusable cups.  This reinforced the belief that the scheme could be successful in Birmingham.

After the trial period, a monthly membership fee was introduced.  The fee was low, with the aim that participation in the scheme for a café is cost-neutral.  As brummie cup is not for profit, these funds were used to cover small fixed costs, such as insurance and printing, as well as the future purchase of additional cups.

At it's peak, brummie cup had eight participating venues across south Birmingham and was also used by hot drink stalls at the monthly Moseley farmers market.

Sadly, over time, cafés stopped promoting brummie cup to their customers and reverted back to disposable cups.  As the cups weren't getting used effectively, the reusable coffee cup deposit return scheme ended at the end of 2025.  In total the cups were used 2,500 times.

Community Cup Scheme

At the beginning of 2023, brummie cup received funding from Birmingham City Council's food legends fund.  Additional reusable cups were bought to set up the community cup scheme, whereby charities, community groups and CICs could borrow reusable cups for free for their events.

No deposits were required, we just asked that groups looked after the cups and replaced cups if more than 5% went missing.  Groups simply collected the cups and washed them up before their event.  Then washed them up and returned the cups after the event.

The scheme proved to be very successful.  In 2023 the cups were used over 15,000 times.  By the end of 2025, the cups had been used over 35,000 times.  This number of uses meant that the carbon saved by not using disposable cups more than offset the carbon used to purchase all brummie cups to date.