As National Recycling Week gets underway, Qantas is encouraging small businesses to lead the way and help Australia solve the challenge of recycling coffee cups by rewarding them with Qantas Points.

Qantas Business Rewards is partnering with Simply Cups to give members the opportunity to earn points when they purchase and collect coffee cups to be recycled in Australia’s first dedicated coffee cup recycling facility.

Members of Qantas Business Rewards can earn points and support recycling in three ways:

• 1 Qantas Point for every 2 Simply Cups branded (or co-branded) coffee cups purchased
• 1 Qantas Point for any 2 coffee cups collected and recycled (where available) by Simply Cups
• 1,000 Qantas Points for each Simply Cups collection container purchased

Head of Qantas Business Rewards Eric Jelinek said recycling is a national challenge, but the scale of small businesses across Australia means they could make a huge difference.

“We’ve got a network of 175,000 companies within our Qantas Business Rewards program and as an advocate of recycling and the work that Simply Cups is doing, we are excited to help our members get involved and reward them for doing so as an added incentive,” said Mr Jelinek.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for Australian small businesses to make a change and take action to help keep coffee cups out of landfill and earn more Qantas Points at the same time.”

Currently there is no recycling facility in Australia that can recycle coffee cups that most Australians are using because the paperboard cups have a plastic lining to prevent leakage.

Simply Cups has fostered a new technology to separate the plastic liner from the paperboard outer cups and will be commissioning a recycling facility early next year.  This will allow each of the materials to be recycled into various recycled paper and plastic goods.

Simply Cups founder and Managing Director Robert Pascoe says educating Australians about the challenge of recycling is just as important as the solution.

“Every day I walk past rubbish bins in shopping centres, train stations and in the street, that are full of coffee cups. I am delighted that soon we will see those valuable resources recaptured and recycled rather than having trees cut down and landfills clogged up.”

How Qantas Business Rewards members can benefit from partnering with Simply Cups

• A medium sized café uses on average 150,000 cups each year
• If these cafes purchased coffee cups through Simply Cups, they could earn more than 75,000 Qantas Points per year – and even more if they purchase a Simply Cups collection container and also collect coffee cups for recycling by Simply Cups
• As part of the existing Qantas Business Rewards scheme, these 75,000 points could be used as employee rewards like vouchers or experiences through the Qantas Store or an Economy return Classic Flight Reward from Sydney to Honolulu (plus taxes, fees and carrier charges). Businesses can also use the points to buy supplies for the office like a toaster, printer or TV through the Qantas Store and reduce their costs.
• Corporate offices can earn similar rewards by purchasing recycling tubes and collecting cups in office environments.

Find out more about the partnership here

About Closed Loop’s Simply Cups program

Simply Cups is a specialised program run by the Australian environmental solutions company, Closed Loop. Simply Cups has attracted great interest since its commencement in May 2017 and is rapidly growing to meet its objective of recycling 100 million cups per year. Through Simply Cups and other specialised programs, Closed Loop helps businesses increase recycling rates and reduce costs through a holistic approach to materials management.

About Qantas Business Rewards

Qantas Business Rewards is a loyalty program designed to reward Australian businesses with exclusive savings on the base fare of selected flights and Qantas Points for their everyday expenses. Qantas Business Rewards members can earn Qantas Points with more than 50 partners and transfer their business’ points to any Qantas Frequent Flyer account. These points they can be used for a range of rewards including flights, upgrades or items at the Qantas Store. For more information visit qantas.com/business