Bringing Sustainability to Storytime, a newly published children's book entitled ‘Little Coffee Cup and the Big Surprise’, from UK author and sustainability advocate Hayley Slack, has been printed on paper made entirely from recycled coffee cups.
In the UK alone, an estimated 3.2 billion single-use cups are used annually
Hayley says: "As a mum of two and someone who works in the waste industry, I wanted to create something meaningful that would make kids and parents think differently about what we throw away.”
“This book shows that we can create children's books using waste, supporting both the environment and local industry,"
The story introduces young readers to Little Coffee Cup, a spirited character who leaves the comfort of a café to discover the big, wide world. But beneath the playful storyline lies a bigger purpose: to spark conversations about waste, re-use and the circular economy…one cup at a time.
Hayley adds: "Books have the power to shape how children see the world, so why not use them to also show how the world can be?"
Each physical book is made from 13 recycled coffee cups, collected from across the UK through CupCycling®, and duly transformed into high-quality paper at James Cropper's Burneside Mill in the Lake District. In a poetic twist, the book ends at the very mill where the real cup-to-book transformation takes place.
In the UK alone, an estimated 3.2 billion single-use cups are used annually, according to environmental action NGO WRAP. But sufficient processing capacity reportedly already exists to recycle this volume of cups, highlighting that the key barrier lies in collection and participation. In this context, programmes like CupCycling® - which currently diverts 58 million coffee cups diverted from landfill annually - play a crucial role in turning waste into opportunity by efficiently gathering and upcycling used cups into valuable paper products.
Noting all this, Little Coffee Cup and the Big Surprise – launching soon - is clearly a small book with a big message.
James Cropper is a market leader in Advanced Materials and Paper & Packaging. The Group's Advanced Materials products incorporate pioneering nonwovens and electrochemical coatings for its customers globally, including components in fuel cells and hydrogen electrolysis. In Paper & Packaging, they range from luxury packaging and creative papers, including bespoke colours and textures in paper and moulded fibre packaging designed to replace single use plastics. James Cropper's goal is to be operationally net zero by 2030 and to reduce carbon through its entire supply chain to net zero by 2050.
