‘CUPS TAX COULD COST JOBS’
INTRODUCING “draconian” measures to clamp down on paper cups would put jobs at risk, a Welsh manufacturer has warned.
The Welsh Government is considering introducing a tax or charge on single-use cups, and Westminster’s Environmental Audit Committee earlier this year called for a minimum 25p levy.
Paul Synott, managing director of Blackwood-based Seda UK and spokesman for the Paper Cup Alliance, warns that such moves could “endanger” jobs, both at manufacturing facilities and in coffee shops.
There are 330 people employed at the Blackwood site, which recently had a turnover of £86.5m.
A £35m investment programme has just been completed and Mr Synott, 52, cautions against introducing “draconian measures”.
Seda moved the manufacturing operation from Buckinghamshire to Wales in 2005.
The MD said: “We supply a lot of the big brands in the UK with paper cups... We’re a success story.”
However, concern has escalated about the impact of discarded cups on the environment. It is claimed the UK throws away enough cups each year to stretch around the world five-and-a-half times.
The introduction of a 5p charge on single-use carrier bags in 2011 was followed by similar policies across the UK. In 2015 it was reported that the number of bags handed out to shoppers in Wales had fallen by 71%. Welsh Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn has said she is considering not just a tax or charge but the “mandatory use of reusable cups”.
Mr Synott warned a ban would “certainly put a lot of jobs at risk”.
He said: “We want to stress that paper cups are very easy to recycle if they get to the right facility and we want the focus to be on industry and government working together to get the collection, recovery and recycling of cups into a 21st-century collection scheme.”
The MD also cautioned against taking action which could damage coffee shops.
He said that, while high streets in some parts of the UK had been “decimated”, coffee shops were a success story that provided jobs for 100,000 people.
“These guys are pulling people on to the high street, and to put jobs [and] that industry at risk doesn’t seem the right thing to do at this point in time,” he said.
Research by Cardiff University’s Professor Wouter Poortinga reported that an estimated “2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used in the UK each year” and said “this creates about 25,000 tonnes of waste”.
But Mr Synott points towards advances in recycling, claiming that “one mill alone can potentially recycle all of the UK’s coffee cups”.
He said: “The paper that we use is produced from forests that are fully certified... For every tree that is cut down, they plant another four trees.”
The modern paper cup can be traced back to 1907, when Boston lawyer Lawrence Luellen came up with the ‘Health Kup’ in a bid to tackle concerns about people sharing cups and spreading disease. People turned to paper cups during the 1918 flu epidemic.
Mr Synott said: “Paper cups are extremely safe and they address the hygiene issue. Refillable cups have their place but if they’re not clean they could potentially cause outbreaks of illness.”
Measures to clamp down on disposable cups are not the only challenges facing the industry.
Setting out the issues raised by Brexit, Mr Synott said: “All of the paper we use is imported. There’s nobody producing the type of paper we use in the UK. We want to see frictionless trade. We’re part of a European group. We may want to move employees between different sites, so free movement of people is important for us.”