Investigation reveals millions of throwaway cups in English hospitals

Data obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the Press Association show that NHS trusts in England have purchased more than 600 million disposable cups since 2013.

One London trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’, purchased almost 30 million cups over a five-year period, with 6,258,249 purchased in one year alone.

The news comes amid rising concern over the environmental impact of single-use throwaway items.

Responses from 174 NHS acute, mental health and community trusts found that they had purchased 609,830,335 disposable cups over the last five years - the equivalent of more than 334,000 per day.

Based on the latest population estimates, this works out as 11 disposable cups for every person currently living in England.

Greenpeace UK said the figures demonstrate “just how out of control our relationship with single-use plastic has become”.

Cups are used across the health service from waiting rooms to wards.

Plastic, foam and paper cups have become entrenched in NHS procurement.

Yet some trusts are not even able to identify how many disposable cups they are purchasing.

A total of 223 NHS acute, mental health and community provider trusts were asked to supply information on the number of disposable drinking cups they had purchased in each year for the last five years.

Of those contacted, 196 responded, but six have been omitted from the data due to discrepancies within their responses.

Twenty seven trusts - including some large acute hospitals - are yet to respond and 16 said they did not hold the information requested.

Over five years 14 trusts purchased more than 10 million cups each - with some even reaching this figure in four years or less.

Among trusts that provided data in financial year totals, organisations admitted to purchasing a total of 457,578,999 disposable cups between 2013/14 and 2017/18.

The 34 trusts that submitted data in calendar year format cumulatively purchased 135,933,414 disposable cups over five years.

A number of trusts supplied additional purchase figures which were not assigned to any specific year. The total sum of these additional cups purchased was 16,317,922.

Disposable cups are purchased across the NHS for hot drinks, cold drinks and dispensing medicines.

While some can be readily recycled others are considerably harder to recycle - such as plastic-lined coffee cups or polystyrene.

In some settings there will be clinical reasons behind the use of single use cups - such as avoiding the use of glass in some mental health wards.

Earlier this year England’s chief medical officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, called on the NHS - as one of the world’s largest employers - to cut its pollutant footprint.

Some trusts have already taken steps to reduce the use of single use plastics and cut down on waste.

A number of hospitals have reintroduced china cups to their wards to reduce the number of disposable cups while others have made significant pledges to reduce the use of single use plastic and paper cups.