National Lottery Grant Win for Bude!

We’re stoked to finally share some important news behind the scenes of Cup Club Bude.

Late last year, The Circular Mindset CIC applied for funding to help Cup Club Bude reach for the moon. We did this quietly while continuing to build relationships with local cafés, community groups and partners across Bude. We’re now delighted to say that the project has received support from The National Lottery Community Fund.

This funding is supporting our 12-month pilot of Bude’s first community-led returnable coffee cup scheme, helping local cafés reduce single-use waste, cut costs, and protect the coastline that defines our town.

Why Cup Club Bude matters for Bude

As a busy coastal town, Bude sees thousands of takeaway coffees served every week, particularly during peak season. Disposable coffee cups are designed to be used for minutes, yet they can last for decades once discarded. They add pressure to local waste systems and too often end up as litter on streets, hedgerows, beaches and coastal paths.

Cup Club Bude offers a simple alternative. Customers borrow a reusable cup for a small deposit, enjoy their drink, and return the cup to any participating café to be washed and reused. It’s a small behaviour change that becomes powerful when adopted by a whole community.

What the National Lottery funding enables

Support from The National Lottery Community Fund allows us to take the scheme to the BIG TIME and onboard as many businesses as we can while keeping participation in the pilot as low cost as possible! The funding helps us expand and increase our investments in reusable cups and lids, signage and communications for cafés, manage the administration behind the scheme, and dedicate time to working directly with local businesses and the community.

Crucially, it also enables us to track impact. Throughout the pilot we’ll be monitoring how many cups are borrowed and returned, gathering feedback from customers and cafés, and sharing results with the community and partners.

A community-led circular economy project

While funding provides a foundation, Cup Club Bude is powered by people. Local cafés have stepped forward to trial something new. Residents and visitors are choosing to return cups instead of throwing them away. Community groups and volunteers are helping spread the word and make reuse part of everyday life in Bude.

We applied for this funding because we believe small coastal towns can lead the way in practical climate action and there’s no reason why this can’t include all coffee businesses in Bude. Cup Club Bude shows how local solutions, designed with community needs in mind, can reduce waste while strengthening local pride.

What happens next

We’d like to say a huge thank you to National Lottery players for making this funding possible, and to everyone in Bude who is already supporting Cup Club Bude by borrowing, returning and talking about the cups.

This pilot is just the beginning. Over the coming months we’ll be sharing updates, learnings and impact from the scheme, as well as opportunities for more cafés and community groups to get involved.

If you’re a café interested in joining Cup Club Bude, or a resident keen to support a more circular future for our town, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we’re showing that circular solutions can start locally and make a lasting difference.