Deadline: October 31, 2025
The Beyond the Bin Fund offers UK organisations an opportunity to receive up to £45,000 to support innovative projects that increase the recycling or reuse of on-the-go paper cups.
The fund focuses on driving progress in awareness campaigns, recycling infrastructure improvements, and research projects. Awareness campaigns include bold, creative behaviour change projects that promote cup recycling in workplaces, events, or public spaces. Recycling infrastructure improvements cover groundbreaking innovations to enhance cup collection, return, and sortation at shopping centres, travel hubs, hospitality venues, or other high-footfall locations. Research projects target high-quality, novel research addressing strategically important challenges in paper cup recycling, such as improving recyclability, recovery rates, environmental performance, or evaluating the feasibility of collection through household recycling schemes.
The Beyond the Bin Fund is open to a wide range of UK-based organisations, including businesses and brands like coffee chains, retailers, and venues, as well as local authorities, councils, universities, research institutions, startups, social enterprises, and collaborative partnerships with a lead applicant. Applicants must be registered companies listed on Companies House, and individuals cannot apply independently.
Applications should present a clear, well-thought-through idea rather than a full business plan, detailing the organisation’s experience, the project concept, core benefits, delivery plan, alignment with the National Cup Recycling Scheme, and expected outcomes. Projects can be at an early stage or co-designed, and applicants are encouraged to explain their approach to learning and adapting as the project progresses.
Funding covers project-related staff time, materials and equipment, design and communications, venue hire or travel, data collection and evaluation, professional fees, and reasonable overheads linked to the project. Costs that are not eligible include general organisational running costs, capital purchases not essential to the project, ongoing operational costs after funding ends, or expenses already covered by other sources.
This fund represents a significant investment in encouraging innovation in cup recycling infrastructure and reuse, aiming to support scalable ideas that deliver tangible, real-world impact.
For more information, visit Valpak.
