Environmental charity Hubbub has created an installation of 5,555 cups to promote the launch of new London recycling facilities.
A £300,000 investment by Hubbub means that London will gain new coffee-cup recycling facilities in five locations. The funding was provided through a grant programme financed by a voluntary 5p charge Starbucks has added to its single-use coffee cups.
The 5,555 cups used in the Bankside installation, open for 11 days from 21 January, represent the number of cups used every minute in the UK. Two hundred and twenty-two of them are coloured black to represent the 4% of cups currently estimated to be recycled in the UK.
Visitors can walk inside the three-metre-tall structure, created by Mule Studio, that will be illuminated at night. It’s wheelchair-accessible.
Following its time at Bankside, the installation will be displayed in other locations across central London, then all the cups used will be transformed into new usable products.
This activation follows the opening of Hubbub's "Pollution pavillion" in Covent Garden on 14 January that aimed to make people consider pollution as a key political issue. The activation, open until 26 January, comprises huge balloons that change colour to reflect annual nitrogen dioxide data drawn from five London Air Quality Network stations.