{"id":74918,"date":"2025-08-17T11:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T11:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74918\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T11:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T11:32:16","slug":"pioneering-childrens-book-aims-to-be-sustainability-success-story-business-crack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/74918\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering children\u2019s book aims to be sustainability success story \u2013 Business Crack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Little Coffee Cup team: Rob Tilsley, Fibre Operations Group Leader, James Croppers, Jordon Scott, Marketing Communications Manager, James Croppers, Hayley Slack, Author of Little Coffee Cup and Lou Kneath animation producer.<\/p>\n

Children may be known for their ability to get their own way but it\u2019s hoped a new book could help harness so-called \u2018pester power\u2019 to benefit the environment.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0children\u2019s book\u00a0Little Coffee Cup and the Big Surprise is the debut story\u00a0from Cumbrian author and sustainability advocate,\u00a0Hayley Slack\u00a0and\u00a0follows\u00a0the\u00a0tale of Little Coffee Cup who leaves the comfort of a caf\u00e9 to discover the wide world.<\/p>\n

Not only is the book written to spark conversations about waste\u00a0and\u00a0reuse\u00a0but it\u2019s made from recycled coffee cups by Burneside-based paper and packaging manufacturer, James Cropper.<\/p>\n

Each physical book is made from 13 recycled coffee cups, collected from across the UK\u00a0and beyond.<\/p>\n

\"\"From cups to paper, Rob Tilsley shows some of the raw material used in the Cupcycling project.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince January we\u2019ve received 757 tonnes \u2013 that\u2019s around 64 million coffee cups \u2013 which have been diverted from landfill,\u201d Rob Tilsley Croppers\u2019 fibre specialist told Business Crack as he showed me around the Burneside factory.<\/p>\n

The process is known as CupCycling; major coffee and fast food chains are paid to send their used cups to Cumbria where they are processed to remove the plastic some contain. This is also recycled and used for a variety of functions including furniture manufacturing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Interest in the process is growing as is demand to use the paper that results.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d author Hayley Slack\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBooks have the power to shape how children see the world, so why not use them to also show how the world\u00a0can\u00a0be? I wanted to show that we can create children\u2019s books using UK waste, supporting both the environment and local industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Croppers has been involved in recycling for 13 years, extracting the fibre from cups to be reused is exciting.<\/p>\n

The \u2018feel\u2019 of the book is attractive. \u2013 the paper feels expensive yet the process means the cost is kept to a minimum. That\u2019s why other customers, including high end retailers Burberry are keen to use paper created from the process.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the potential impact of the campaign\u00a0Hayley says she hopes the book will encourage more organisations to consider using the upcycled paper as well as follow future stories of The Little Coffee Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren love the story they love seeing the journey,\u201d Hayley said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a story it\u2019s a journey they can relate to and the feedback has been brilliant. My next focus is to increase the points for coffee cup recycling and work with a partner to have more recycling points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Animator Lou Kneath whose team designed the coffee cup\u2019s imagery.<\/p>\n

According to environmental\u00a0group\u00a0WRAP, an estimated 3.2 billion single-use cups are used annually in the UK. James Cropper has capacity to recycle more coffee cups and through the CupCycling\u00a0initiative hopes to encourage the wider industry change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pioneering project showcases the power of innovation in turning everyday waste into something truly meaningful,\u201d WRAP\u2019S senior specialist Adam Herriott said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBy transforming recycled coffee cups into a children\u2019s book, it not only supports UK-based manufacturing and sustainable paper production, but also inspires young people to think differently about waste and reuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitiatives like this help build a circular economy, reduce reliance on virgin materials, and demonstrate how local resources can be repurposed to create high-value products. We hope to see more creative collaborations like this across the UK, helping to drive environmental change and support local industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayley added: \u201cEvery child reading this story is literally holding a piece of that journey in their hands. That\u2019s how we make sustainability feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little Coffee Cup and the Big Surprise is now available from retailers including Waterstones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Little Coffee Cup team: Rob Tilsley, Fibre Operations Group Leader, James Croppers, Jordon Scott, Marketing Communications Manager,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-74918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}