Interested to see the STW thoughts on this…..
BBC link

Here’s my 5c to get started. I run a small village shop, we sell around 50 cups a day, and around a year ago introduced a 50p increase on price per cup as we invested in biodegradable cups and lids and a new machine. At the same time we also promoted a 50p saving if you use your own cup.
In reality the cups cost around 6p more per unit than a non biodegradable cup.
However from a customer point of view we’ve seen very little take-up of the bring your own mug. A year on only one customer regularly bring their own mug. And the new coffee machine has increased sales. We sell coffee at a comparatively low price point (£2 for a latte or cappuccino) so I can’t see customers batting an eye lid at another 25p levy on top……

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these? All interviews of coffee shops Ive seen this morning have similar experiences to us, they can’t see a 25p levy baring an effect.

I don’t think it’ll stop people using disposable cups, people seem happy to pay whatever for coffee flavour beverages.

We introduced 10p off if you use your own cup at work – very few people do even though we sold discounted, branded Keepcups. This is in an office where storage of your own cup is easy too.

I use a reusable in the office, but if I’m out I don’t carry one with me. I mainly drink-in where I can though, although often this still means a disposable cup.

Well if a 25p levvy doesn’t have an effect then fine, the additional revenue will go to build more recycling plants that can recycle these cups – there are only 3 in the county at the moment. So a simple choice – either use a re-usable cup or pay a bit more and fund more recycling facilities.

I think it is a good thing. Recycling has been a scam really, we’ve all been good citizens and increased our recycling, but we don’t have the infrastructure to cope with the tens or hundreds of thousands of tons of waste it produces, most of it gets exported for ‘recycling’, the reality is it mostly ends up in another countries landfill.

It is right that the costs are borne by those who demand and produce the waste – the consumers.

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I’d like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

Didn’t we all think the same thing about carrier bags? Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping. The need the reduce waste is so high it’s time we start using reusable cups and water bottles.

I work at a university and the number of those single use cups in bins and left in communal areas is almost unbelievable.

Sadly I drink McDonald’s coffe as I drive round a lot and work in places with no kettle. I would love to be able to use my own cup. Peeps who march down the road brandishing a Starbucks cup( horrible coffee) will not probably care about a 25/50p tax and very doubtful the money raised will go to recycling. Just ban non recyclable cups completely. Bring your own or places employ a cupwasher

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I’d like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

Totally agree.

It does seem odd if there is a biodegradable alternative that the first bit of legislation it not to make them mandatory.

I don’t think the reusable coffee mug is quite as easy a win as the carrier bag one. Our car by default has bags living in the boot and we’ve got a couple of those bags that fold into themselves down to the size of a golf ball one of which my wife has living in her handbag and the other goes in my back pocket if going into town or if riding the pannier does the job. Walking around with an empty mug on the off chance is just not as ‘fit and forget’. I suppose it should work for the commuter who religiously picks up a coffee on their way in every day or picks one up every day at lunch.

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

And also – is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups?

How about a mandatory extra transaction – buy a cup from a vending machine and then pay for your coffee afterwards. No tokens, cold hard 25p in coins, maybe even no change given.

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

And also – is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups?

You have a big cup and fill it less for a small drink. I use a reusable cup, it’s large enough for a typical large drink. I usually drink small or mediums. The benefit is if you order a small or medium in a large cup they usually overfill it and you get near as damn it a large drink – though that just dilutes the espresso shot and flavour more.

And also – is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups

In what sense? Hygiene like, “ohh someone else touched the toilet door before I went in there” kind of over-reaction? 😉

Get “keep cups”. One in the car, one at work. There is no need really for using disposable / single use items to hold a drink. Kinda sh1ts me. Like having a pack of oranges (or whatever) in a supermarket, that are presented in a polystyrene tray covered in cling film. No need whatsoever.

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I’d like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

+1

Happy to pay an extra 25p if i knew it hugely improved recycling. But will it 100% go to that or be used as a stealth tax? Dont trust this government.

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these?

But biodegradable isn’t the same as recyclable, I don’t think there’s even a legal definition of the time a biodegradable item needs to biodegrade in is there? So essentially it will likely still end up in landfill, it just won’t exist there as long as a standard cup will.

Still it’s better than the current situation so I’d fully support (and pay the extra) for biodegradable cups to be mandatory.

As for the 25p levy, I don’t think it’s going to help much either, at least not with the actual issue, I’m sure the revenue will help someone somewhere…

Going slightly OT regarding litter, I think it’s not unreasonable to have snipers positioned to shoot anyone who drops litter or doesn’t pick up their dog crap. That would soon sort the problem out.

Back in the real world we could employ litter pickers on commission based on n pence per item and charge it back to the brand in question at n x 2 pence . So if McDonalds wrappers are everywhere we charge McD for every item the litter pickers find. They either have to suck it up or pass the price increase onto customers.

Appreciate this doesn’t help with the lack of recycling. I did see in the news that China are no longer accepting plastics for recycling and I did wonder how much actually gets recycled in reality or does it just get dumped.

One thing that helps here in Norway is the main garage brand (ex Statoil and now called Circle K) have a deal where you buy a coffee mug with a lid and you get free coffee from any of their petrol stations for one year. But a new mug each Jan.

I think it’s fair – Even recycling uses large amounts of energy and most cups now get sent to incenerators with general rubbish, not separated.

The biodegradable is probably a good thing but the vast majority of paper cups are either put into office, household or street general wast containers so won’t have much chance to biodegrade anyway?

The biggest outrage is going to be for a levy on single use plastic bottles where, for carbonated drinks, byo is far less likely to be viable.

This is just a step towards the much needed packaging tax, anything that isn’t simple to separate and recycle should be significantly taxed. That way there is an incentive for the packaging industry to work in partnership with the recycling industry, if the product recycling rate doesn’t meet expectations then tax it more.

It should well be noted that some of the big local authority recycling plants are in big trouble or shut down, why? Because what we throw is difficult to process.

Coffee is one of life’s pleasures for me, so I tend to sit down and enjoy a good coffee in a proper mug rather than buying it on the go in a disposable cup. But the number of disposable cups thrown away in general is massive and we need to take drastic action.
In the building where I work, there are three small coffee outlets that use only disposable cups to take away despite many people using the seating area. There are no recycling bins. In our office we have a load of mugs that we buy our hot drinks in, and the cafe puts them through the dishwasher for us. That was only after I asked the cafe if we could do that- they don’t actively encourage people to recycle or bring their own mug.

Appreciate this doesn’t help with the lack of recycling. I did see in the news that China are no longer accepting plastics for recycling and I did wonder how much actually gets recycled in reality or does it just get dumped

Most gets burnt as RDF

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

We only serve one size so don’t have that issue. If the customers cup is too small I adjust the amount of hotplates dispensed.

Regards biodegradable cups, they use a plant based degradable plastic for the inner coating and lids. We’ve put them in our compost with no evidence the other end.

Kryton57 – Member
Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I’d like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.
+1

Happy to pay an extra 25p if i knew it hugely improved recycling. But will it 100% go to that or be used as a stealth tax? Dont trust this government.

+ 1

Couldn’t have been a Tory decision, they’re too busy lying and making up stories and excuses 😆

But I would like to see fast food drive throughs banned.

I’ve got one of the re-usable plastic Starbucks cups – they had them at a service station a few years ago & I think only cost 50p, plus you got 25p off your drink if you bought one.

But, while I use it everyday to take a cup of tea with me in the car on the way into work, I have never actually used it when buying a coffee.

The barrier to this for me is that normally deciding to have a coffee is a bit of a snap decision when I am out somewhere. I don’t consciously think that in approx. 2 hrs time I might fancy a coffee so will carry around this empty reusable cup on the off-chance that I do in fact want a coffee.

There was a program on a while ago about recycling etc. and they featured a bloke who had developed a recyclable coffee cup, but none of the big chains were remotely interested in taking it up.
I think the onus should be on forcing either the packaging manufacturer’s or the coffee sellers to provide recyclable cups.

Ideally, we would all have re-usable cups on us that we could use but I am not sure of the practicality of that for a lot of situations.

How about a mandatory extra transaction – buy a cup from a vending machine and then pay for your coffee afterwards. No tokens, cold hard 25p in coins, maybe even no change given.

And if you’ve got no change and were going to pay for your coffee by card, you can have your it poured into your outstretched, cupped hands and try to slurp as much as you can before it ends up on the floor.

“The committee has recognised that the huge mountain of disposable coffee cups is effectively unrecylable, and is overwhelming and disrupting the nation’s waste disposal systems, ultimately polluting our rivers and seas, and needs urgent action.

According to the internet, the average paper cup weighs 11g and the plastic lid weighs 3g. A ballpark figure for 2.5 billion cups is 35 billion grams, or 35 000 tonnes. In other words, less than one kilo per head of population per year. That’s actually a fairly minor amount of garbage if you think about how much the average household generates per week. If you have a hard-copy subscription to a magazine, you are generating much more paper waste per year from that than you are from coffee cups. If you are serious about reducing the amount of waste, put a levy on books and magazines and force people to read them electronically. This is just some politicians posturing, trying to look like they’re doing something but actually just getting headlines.

I use a re-usable cup at Waitrose and think they should stop giving away disposable coffee cups – forcing people to bring in reusable.

I have a Costa reusable cup but it is only a medium and most of the time I want a large caramel-latte for my morning dose-up at work. They give a 25p discount for their reusable cups.

Was thinking this morning of getting a generic reusable cup and marking out where a Costa large would come to in it so I can use that.

Will/shouldn’t takeaway fizzy drink cups be included in this as well?

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

One that I’ve seen is that the server pours the coffee into a disposable cup to measure it, then transfers it into your mug and bins the disposable cup.
Enough to make you weep!

I’ve had one of these for a while now and it collapses down to almost but not quite pocket size

It’s fine to have in your bag but as has been said – unless I know I’m going for a coffee or have my work bag with me then it’s left at home/on my desk.

What we need is for someone to start making branded disposable cups that the celebs all start using and being papped with. Once the sheeple all start seeing their favorite vapid look at me celeb wandering about with one they’ll jump on the fad

I’m happy to pay more though – they’re already bloody extortinate and I resent everyone I buy that’s not from a niche artisan non-chain shop so this might actually help me cut down on drinking the stuff

We need manbags to become widespread, then we can carry cups….

Instead of making it a 25p levy, why not make it a 50p deposit on the disposable cup? Even if the buyer discards it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other people happy to scoop them up and return them to the cafe for the refund! The cafe can then recycle responsibly.

Rachel

Nbt and myself went riding around the Peak district on New Years day.
Because I’m on the back of our tandem I’m able to look around. The amount of rubbish (mainly from fast food outlets, plastic bottles, coffee cups, wrappers, crisp packets) was astounding. This was discarded on grass verges, in farmers fields, banks of rivers and in the middle of the road. It’s disgusting.

This drinking coffee whilst walking around is a something that has come into fashion over the last 15 or so years. We need to change our behaviour about our consumerism. Education is the key.

Because I’m on the back of our tandem I’m able to look around.

I always assumed you were transfixed on the view of his pert buttocks

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these?

A couple of reasons:
1. Re-use is much better
2. Biodegradeable cups often look like plastic cups, so they get chucked in the plastics bin and contaminate the recycling process.

OP interesting insight and yes agreed, change the law to require the use of bio-degradable cups would seem the better solution.

“Happy to pay the 25p”

Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn’t enough.

darrell – Member
One thing that helps here in Norway is the main garage brand (ex Statoil and now called Circle K) have a deal where you buy a coffee mug with a lid and you get free coffee from any of their petrol stations for one year. But a new mug each Jan.

I saw that whilst in Norway a few years back. Great idea!

gastromonkey – Member
Didn’t we all think the same thing about carrier bags? Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping.

My Sainsburys Local, I seem to be the only one who brings a bag. The rest ask for a bag or pick up one of the basic reusables under the self checkouts and scan/pay for that, each time. 5 or 10p, they don’t care.

Coffee, people are happy to pay stupid prices for a huge container of hot milk and a dash of coffee. 25p makes no difference. Not convinced that will go to paying for recycling facilities, no matter how much they say it will. Plus how are they recycled?

TurnerGuy – Member
I use a re-usable cup at Waitrose and think they should stop giving away disposable coffee cups – forcing people to bring in reusable.

And then you can get free coffee without buying something 😀 , as the only thing stopping you using the machines is having to ask for a stupid coffee cup and prove you’ve bought something.

Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping.

Really, is that what you think? When was the last time you went into a supermarket or (especially) a small shop?

“Happy to pay the 25p”

Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn’t enough.

Exactly. If any levy is to discourage use and change behaviour, it needs to be high enough to make people think. I think a quid would do it.

“Happy to pay the 25p”
Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn’t enough.

Exactly. If any levy is to discourage use and change behaviour, it needs to be high enough to make people think. I think a quid would do it.

You say that and I don’t disagree, but a mere 5p has made a marked different to the use of plastic bags.