Are polypropylene cups recyclable in the UK? What WRAP and the new household collection rules say

Recyclable is a claim the CMA has views about, and our guide to environmental claims on cups covers the rules. This article is about the narrower question underneath it: when a polypropylene cup reaches the end of its life in the UK, can it actually be recycled, and by whom.

What WRAP says about polypropylene

WRAP's Polymer choice and recyclability guidance is the reference the UK packaging industry works to. The February 2026 edition, version 4, lists PP alongside PET and recycled PET as the material choice for trays, pots, tubs and lids, and notes a well proven existing recycling infrastructure for them, with one exception it names: recycled PP for food contact. On the expanded form it is explicit, stating that expanded polypropylene is considered recyclable in the UK while expanded PET is not. The December 2022 edition of the same guidance summarised rigid PP as currently recyclable.

The guidance is written for packaging, and a reusable cup is not packaging. But the polymer is the polymer: the sorting and reprocessing infrastructure that handles a PP tub handles a PP cup.

The two caveats that matter for a printed cup

WRAP's definition of not recyclable includes packs with non-NIR detectable colours. Near-infrared sorting is how a materials facility identifies polymer, and pigments that absorb that light, carbon black being the usual example, make the item invisible to the sorter. A cup in a dark pigment can be the right polymer and still be missed.

The second caveat is labels and decoration. WRAP's best practice for pots, tubs and trays is a label covering less than 40% of the item, because labels commonly do not get recycled and a large one stops the sorter identifying the base polymer. For a cup that is printed rather than labelled, the equivalent question is how much of the surface the print covers and whether the ink interferes with detection. It is a fair question to put to a supplier.

Who collects it

For years the honest answer to "is it recyclable" was "depends on your council". WRAP's December 2022 edition of the same guidance put the share of local authorities collecting pots, tubs and trays from the kerbside at approximately 50%.

That is what Simpler Recycling changes. GOV.UK's guidance for household recycling in England, last updated on 13 May 2025, says that from 31 March 2026 waste collectors must, by default, collect the dry recyclable waste streams separately, covering glass, metal and plastic including cartons, with plastic film packaging and bags added from 31 March 2027.

For an event that owns its cups, the practical route at end of life is usually not the household bin anyway: a commercial waste contractor taking a clean, sorted batch of one polymer is a simpler load than mixed kerbside recycling.

The part that comes before recycling

A reusable cup earns its keep before any of this applies. The green credentials page on this site describes the cups as 100% recyclable, and the reusable event cups are listed as dishwasher safe, which is what lets one cup replace a stack of single-use ones across a season. Recyclability is the end of the story. Reuse is the story.

If you want to check the material and the print coverage before committing, a sample cup is the quickest way to put the question to the people who will eventually recycle it.