Four of the UK's largest coffee retailers are today joining Costa Coffee in an industry-wide scheme to recycle 100 million coffee cups by April 2019.

Caffè Nero, Greggs, McDonald's UK and Pret A Manger said today they will join the market-led solution from environmental compliance body Valpak, where coffee retailers pay £70 to waste collectors for every tonne of used cups collected.

The idea is to drive up the value of waste takeaway cups to boost the market for collection and recycling. Under the scheme, the value of a tonne of used cups rises 140 per cent to £120 per tonne, a threshold that makes it commercially viable for waste collectors to process them.

The scheme was launched earlier this year by Costa Coffee, and within the first six months of operation has already seen the recovery and recycling of more than 41 million cups. Consumers deposit their used cups either at participating stores, or at dedicated recycling bins.

Steve Gough, Valpak's chief executive, said the new coffee retailers will boost investment in new recycling infrastructure for coffee cups. "To have Caffè Nero, Greggs, McDonald's UK and Pret A Manger join Costa Coffee in the scheme further validates the impact it is having and the ongoing investment from these brands will help increase the rate at which waste management companies can extend cup recycling services to more customers, increasing the amount of cups they recover for recycling," he said.

Valpak said it is on track to recycle 100 million coffee cups by 2019, and is aiming for 500 million by 2020.