The University of Chichester has been named as a finalist in the Outstanding Contribution to Environment Leadership category at the Times Higher Education Awards after successfully introducing a scheme designed to eliminate single-use cup consumption.
The institution partnered with sustainable drinkware specialist Circular&Co. in September 2025 to launch Tap&Reuse™, a system which encourages students and staff to pay for their drink as normal and enjoy it in a reusable cup before taking it to a designated return point where it can be collected, cleaned and reused. Users are only charged £3 if cups are not returned within eight days.
Since being rolled out at five café locations across its Bishop Otter and Bognor Regis campuses, the initiative has seen 12,225 cups borrowed, with 90% returned at an average time of three days.
Circular&Co. estimates the scheme has so far prevented the use of 28,064 disposable cups.
Lucy Ferre, Energy and Carbon Manager at the University of Chichester, said: “Removing single-use cups from our campuses has been a long-term objective for Chichester. We knew the enormous waste and carbon emissions they produce could be avoided, and that’s precisely what we’ve been striving for over the past year.
“It was imperative that we worked with an organisation that embodied circularity and had experience in launching scalable reusable cup schemes. Circular&Co. has been that supportive partner right from the outset.”
Each cup features a QR code that users can scan to find out how long they have left to return it and the location of nearby points to do so. This helps to simplify the scheme and maximise the return rate.
Circular&Co. provided the University of Chichester with the necessary equipment to adopt the platform, including installation and full operational support. It also monitors and automatically replaces cup stocks free of charge.
Dan Dicker, Founder at Circular&Co., said: “The success of reusable cup schemes depends just as much on the system around them as the product itself. We take pride in seeing that over 28,000 disposable cups have so far been saved, in addition to a return rate that for years so many systems have been unable to reach due to the complex processes attached to them.”
“High return rates are made possible when reuse is made simple, which is something the University of Chichester also understood and now thoroughly deserves recognition for through its nomination for such a reputable award.”
Other adoptees of Tap&Reuse™ include National Trust, which has recently launched the platform at more than 500 sites across the country.
Winners will be announced at the Times Higher Education Awards ceremony on 26 November in Birmingham.
Discover more about Tap&Reuse™.