Call for charge on coffee cups to reduce waste

IT IS not news a latte lover needs to hear, but charging coffee drinkers for a disposable cup could cut their use by up to 300 million a year, research suggests.

An estimated 2.5 billion throwaway coffee cups are used in the UK each year, creating about 25,000 tons of waste.

Now academics at Cardiff University have tested a series of measures to encourage the introduction of re-usable cups.

A report found that financial incentives, reusable alternatives and green slogans all had a direct impact on consumer behaviour.

Charging for disposable cups increased the use of re-usable coffee cups by 3.4 per cent and environmental messages in coffee shops and cafes saw a rise of 2.3 per cent in their use.

There was another 2.5 per cent hike with the availability of reusable cups, while the distribution of free reusable cups led to a further boost of 4.3 per cent.

And in one cafe, where there was a blend of free reusable alternatives with green slogans and a charge on disposable cups, the use of reusable cups increased from 5.1 per cent to 17.4 per cent.

Report author Professor Wouter Poortinga said: “Our results show that, on average, the use of reusable coffee cups could be increased by up to 12.5 per cent with a combination of measures.

“With this in mind, the UK’s usage of an estimated 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups each year could be cut by up to 300 million.”

He said the most notable finding was that, while a charge on disposable cups increased the use of reusable ones, a discount on reusable coffee cups had no impact on their usage.

“There is an important nuance when it comes to financial incentives,” he said.

“People are far more sensitive to losses than to gains when making decisions, so if we really want to change a customer’s behaviour then a charge on a disposable cup is more likely to be effective.” Cardiff University worked with coffee roaster Bewley’s to produce the findings, which will be submitted to the Government’s inquiry into coffee cup waste.

Louise Whitaker, from Bewley’s UK, said while it may be difficult to persuade customers to change their ways, companies had a responsibility to play their part in solving the cup waste problem.

“There is a huge amount of waste being sent to landfill each year and promoting re-usable cups is part of the solution,” she said.

The research was carried out between September and December last year and involved 12 business and university cafe sites.