Scaling Reusable Food and Drink Packaging Across Manchester

An insightful range of speakers, discussions and collaborations took place at the Food and Drink Packaging Roundtable in Manchester on Friday 06.11.2026. This event was hosted jointly by University of Manchester and Manchester City Council.

The first guest speaker was Mark Leaver, Assistant Director for Commissioning and Procurement from Manchester City Council. He shared the shocking figure that the UK wastes 2.5 billion single-use cups per year. He discussed in good detail of the importance of consumers understanding the true "costs" and "value" of goods, beyond the price and towards recognising the social and environmental impact of goods. Mark discussed the value and importance of circular economies, in significantly reducing our waste.

Then, Alison Shedlock spoke about the Manchester Bee Cup scheme launched by University of Manchester and Manchester City Council, which sees re-fillable cups placed into consumer circulation in Manchester. These cups are available from public cafes and can be deposited in any public cafe (for example council and university operated cafes). To date, the scheme has seen 120,000 borrows, 15,700 users, 10,900kg of CO2 savings, and a 97.5% return rate. This data is impressive and is a testament to the joined up working and care of local people to participate in the scheme. The scheme is made available through Vytal, who provide the cups for rent. The scheme provides a blueprint and stakeholders are keen to see its expansion into cultural venues, parks and private cafes. 

Thereafter, the roundtable saw a panel of speakers discuss their learning from experience and sharing best practice. This included Laura Blandy (from University of Manchester), Joanne Dooley (from Royal Northern College of Music) and Vicki Greer (from Manchester City Council). The key takeaways for us in terms of rolling out such initiatives, is good communication with consumers ahead of provision rollout, in addition to effective colleague training (particularly catering staff members). 

Following these talks, there was an opportunity for the 20 ticketed guests to engage in collaborative discussions surrounding strengths, challenges, and opportunities for rolling out re-fillable schemes of this nature. The discussions were interesting and useful.