12 best reusable coffee cups and travel mugs that aren’t adding to landfill

The clue is in the name with Circular&Co. Tackling waste on more than one front, the brand takes single-use coffee cups and recycles them into reusable ones. Paper cups are shredded and mixed with recycled plastic from plastic cups and lids. When you no longer need the cup, it can be 100 per cent recycled, to close the circle.

Another huge plus is you can sip from all the way around the lid – just press it down and you’re away, then pop it back up to close the seal. This does make quite a loud clicking noise, however, the leak-proof lid didn’t let out a drop while the cup was at the bottom of our tote bag. Plus, if you love a bigger brew, the 12oz size we tested is ideal.

The brand says its cups will last a decade, which is a big claim. We can’t say whether this is true for us just yet, but the cup certainly feels robust enough for a lot of daily use. Plus, replacement parts are available, to help it last as long as possible.

While you could choose your Ecoffee cup in a groovy pattern, we love it in monochrome. It’s simple, and actually looks similar to a typical single-use coffee cup, but you can choose it in a range of colours, from pastels to hot pink. We went all-white, but the brand says the material can stain over time, so a darker colour may be better with a view to long-term use.

The cup is made with a pure biopolymer, an alternative to traditional plastic, which the brand says has a lower carbon footprint. This is teamed with a rubbery-feel silicone lid and sleeve, all of which feels nice and sturdy. We did notice the sleeve feels quite hot when the cup is full of piping hot coffee, but the little flap on the lid did a really good job of keeping drinks from splashing out of the mouthpiece during some energetic walking. For not much more than a tenner, the value for money offered by this cup is super.

A cup that looks good and does good, there’s so much we love about this slick little number from Ocean Bottle. What’s particularly cool is, when you buy one Ocean Bottle’s tumblers, mugs or water bottles (which we also really love), the equivalent of 1,000 plastic bottles will be collected from areas hit especially hard by plastic pollution. Even the tumbler is made with 90 per cent recycled stainless steel. It also looks really neat in the silver colourway. We felt very proud handing this over to the barista in our local coffee shop.

The double-wall vacuum-insulation ensures the cup doesn’t feel at all hot in the hand, and it kept our drink hot for four hours. If you’re the kind of commuter who needs to run for the train, keep in mind that the slider across the mouthpiece doesn’t seal, so a tiny little bit of coffee escaped while we were walking with the cup in-hand.

With more than 800,000 likes on TikTok, Frank Green is having a moment. We tried the brand’s ceramic-lined stainless steel coffee cup, and it’s as chic as coffee cups come. We love that you can customise the colours of the base, lid and button – you can even opt for a randomised combination of colours generated by the brand. We chose to personalise ours further, with our monogrammed initials, which is a nice additional touch.

The surface of the cup has a slightly matte finish and a premium feel. As the cup features triple-wall vacuum insulation, it did a brilliant job of keeping our coffee hot, even after carrying it around for four hours.

Quick and easy to open and close, with a push-down, pop-up button on the lid, this is a streamlined, leak-proof option for packing on the go. Although it comes with a slightly higher price tag than most of the other cups on our list, it’s a functional, stylish pick – Frank Green is popular for a reason.

You can count on Joseph Joseph for considered design. The matte surface feels high-quality, and secure in the hand, while the shape of the cup is neat, squat and regular, and easy to pack away. At a touch more than a tenner, this is an understated, well-made reusable cup that offers excellent value for money.

We’ll admit we have never considered how hygienic our coffee cup mouthpieces are, but Joseph Joseph has. The flip-top cap on this cup completely covers the mouthpiece when it’s closed – a unique feature among the cups we tested.

As it isn’t insulated, it won’t keep your coffee hot for long but we found it didn’t leak at all, even after it had been on its side in our bag. With its monochrome colourway and smooth, streamined silhouette, it looks really neat, too. There are light green and coral versions available too, if the navy blue colourway we tried doesn’t appeal.

This Melbourne-born brand creates reusable coffee cups with coffee shop trips and baristas in mind. We love that you can make the cup your own by customising the size and materials, and choosing from a wide range of colours.

We opted for a tempered glass cup with a cork band (which you need, as the glass gets hot), which is made from waste wine corks. While the tempered glass didn’t keep our coffee hot for long, we absolutely love how it looks. Similarly, the thin glass rim is a little touch of luxury we really enjoyed. This is a joy to drink from. The lid does feel quite stiff, and it’s not leak-proof, but we really rate that Keepcup sells replacement parts, so this cup could last you a really long time.

Ember’s offering is the Goldilocks of travel mugs. Designed to bring your drink to your desired temperature – between 50C and 62.5C – and then keep it there for up to three hours, it’s a brilliant option if you’re very particular about the temperature of your coffee (and can bear the price tag). It automatically turns on when it senses hot liquid, goes into sleep mode when it’s empty, and lets you know when your drink reaches the perfect temperature via the Ember app. Pretty smart.

Changing the temperature of our drink couldn’t be easier. You simply tweak it on the cup’s swanky touch LED display or within the Ember app, where you can also choose or add presets once you know exactly what you like. The leak-proof lid enables you to drink from any angle and doesn’t leak a drop, even when lying horizontally in our bag for hours.

The catch? It needs to be charged on a special charging coaster after only three hours and it’s not insulated either. This means that, once the battery runs out, the cup doesn’t keep drinks hot for very long at all. That being said, we liked that we could keep our drink hot all day if we left it on the coaster, making this well suited to anyone who wants to keep their drink on their desk, rather than taking it on the go all day.

Carrying a cup around with you all day can be really annoying, but not with Stojo’s. The brand’s flexible silicone cups are collapsible, leaving more space in your bag for all your other stuff. Brilliant.

The collapsing action is easy to get the hang of, too – just push the top of the cup towards the base. We must admit that filling something flexible like this with hot liquid is, initially, a little weird, but the heat sleeve ensures the cup feels solid and secure. The cup is surprisingly stable, despite being top-heavy.

While the seal on the lid is leak-proof, we did find that liquid dribbles out from the gap between the lid and the cup, so, make sure your cup is completely empty and dry if you want to collpase it and store it on its side in your bag. If you prefer your coffee iced, make sure to go for the larger (16oz) cup, as it comes with a straw.

Stojo’s cup is a great space-saving option, and we’re honestly wondering why there aren’t more collapsible cups out there.

If you’re someone who likes to take a moment to really appreciate how good your coffee looks, this cup could be the one for you, as the transparent lid enables you to admire your latte art or chocolate-dusted cappuccino.

The cup is designed to fit in most cup-holders but what really stood out about the stroll was the lid. You can drink from any angle, once you’ve opened the cup with a smooth, clockwise swivel of the lid – a speedy way to access your brew.

We noticed drips sometimes form on the rim of the lid, which showed up on the light beige colourway we tried. However, the stroll comes in a decent range of other sophisticated colourways, from black to olive green. It also proved itself as a great leak-proof option, and kept our coffee hot for several hours.

You can fit a lot of coffee in this cup (we tried the 473ml version). Naturally, this is going to be a great choice for anyone whose usual coffee order is on the larger size. Your super-sized coffee will stay nice and hot, too, owing to the double-wall vacuum insulation, which kept drinks hot for far longer than most of the other cups we tried. Our coffee was still hot after three hours, which is brilliant for something that falls short of an actual flask.

We also like how hard-wearing this cup feels. Made with pro-grade stainless steel and a dishwasher-proof powder coating (which has a matte feel that makes it easier to grip), it also has a good weight to it. This makes it feel like a high-quality piece of drinkware that you will have with you for a long time. Bear in mind this is a weightier option, compared with some other cups.

The press-in lid is another feature we really enjoy, and we found that the sliding mouthpiece did a good job of keeping splashes under control.

If you want your cup to feel as tough as nails, make it the Yeti rambler. Featuring the brand’s signature premium, utilitarian look, the cup has a matte finish and minimal silver detailing, with the cherry on top being the bold, lively colourways available, from orange to hot pink and blue.

The cup comes with a transparent lid – a nice perk for admirers of latte art – while the magsafe slider opens and closes with a satisfying motion, making it a neat way to access your brew. The double-wall vacuum insulation didn’t disappoint, either, as it kept our drink hot for a couple of hours – long enough to last the morning commute.

If you turn into a household of Yeti-lovers, the stackable design of the cups means they should be convenient to store and pack away.

We tried the 8oz (237ml) version, which may not be large enough to satisfy all caffeine cravings but it will take up less space in your bag.

Colourful, charming and fun, this cup from accessories and gifts brand Caroline Gardener puts us in mind of a seaside scene (think striped deck chairs and beach huts). If you’re not wild about this colour scheme, however, there’s an alternative design featuring pretty florals (£14, Carolinegardner.com).

The grippy, ribbed finish of the heat-proof sleeve feels nice and secure in the hand. We did notice it felt quite warm when the cup contained very hot liquids, but it shouldn’t be too hot to handle. In terms of materials, while the lid is made from silicone, the cup is a type of plant-based plastic made with renewable resources.

We liked the little seal used to close off the mouthpiece, which works really well, and you can fold it back and secure it when you want to keep the mouthpiece open. It’s worth keeping in mind that the cup does’t feel the most robust, but it’ll certainly make your morning brews a little brighter.