With more than 2.5 billion coffee cups being thrown away in the UK each year, one coffee-mad company is striving for better.

Carvetii Coffee Roasters, based at Threlkeld, has launched a new recycling initiative for both wholesale and retail customers, in a bid to reduce waste and the effects of the pandemic on the use of disposable cups.

Owner and co-founder, Angharad MacDonald, said: “Many people have reverted back to using takeaway coffee cups during the Covid pandemic, and this has been backed up by a jump in demand for them from our customers.

"We’ve all seen the waste from many high street chains either dumped at the side of our roads and ending up in our rivers or in landfill, and we knew we needed to look at ways to prevent this happening with our cups at the very least.

“At the same time, we’ve also seen record growth in our online orders and monthly coffee subscriptions, so we felt strongly that we needed to offer our retail customers the opportunity to recycle their empty coffee bags."

As part of the scheme, wholesale customers such as cafes and restaurants will be given a free recycling box for takeaway cups, with retail customers able to return empty coffee bags to the Carvetii team to recycle.

The roaster already recycles everything it can, from coffee sacks to nitrile gloves used to pack the beans.

But the campaign, launched during UK Coffee Week (October 19-25) aims to see a boost of recycling across the county.

"The new coffee bag recycling box at the roastery means people can drop their bags off or save them up and return them – for the price of a second class stamp – through the post for us to recycle on their behalf," Ms MacDonald explained.

“Ultimately, it’s all about making it as easy as possible for our customers to take the responsible path while we’ll continue our efforts to be more sustainable as a company.”

For more details, including information on Carvetii's latest products and planet-friendly plans, visit www.carvetiicoffee.co.uk.