‘If we’re going to survive, we must get rid of disposable cups’: How KeepCup turned a zero-waste solution into a fashion accessory

Zlata Rodionova discusses sustainability with co-founder Abigail Forsyth and why the paper coffee cup has ‘just got to go’

‘You have to be commercially minded to sell a product and convince people to buy it, even for good reasons,’ says Forsyth (Photos from KeepCup)

At least 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away each year with less than 1 per cent of those recycled, and that’s in the UK alone. But Abigail Forsyth, co-founder and managing director of KeepCup, hopes they will soon be a relic.

“I’d like to see the world disposable-cup free. If we’re going to survive as a species, we have to get rid of it, just like the plastic bag. We need to collectively realise that a disposable cup is actually something that you do not need. It’s just got to go,” Forsyth says.

KeepCup is widely regarded as the original and one of the best reusable coffee cup brands out there. It is now used in more than 65 countries and Forsyth estimates she sold more than 10 million cups to date, diverting potential billions of disposable cups from landfill across the globe.