Pathetic! Coffee chains shamed over cup menace

Starbucks ends ‘bring your own’ offer after 3 months

EFFORTS by coffee shop chains to cut the billions of cups that are dumped rather than recycled were branded ‘pathetic’ yesterday.

The Daily Mail has discovered that Starbucks has withdrawn a promise of a 50p discount for customers who bring their own cup after just three months.

The chain has gone back to a smaller discount of 25p and there is little information to flag this up in its outlets. At the same time, Costa makes a 25p donation to litter charities if people bring their own cup, but only a tiny fraction of customers know about it.

Other high street chains do even less to encourage people to bring their own cups. Caffe Nero only gives a double stamp on its reward card.

Details emerged after the Government ruled out introducing a 5p charge on cups and said it wants retailers to sort out the problem.

The billions of cups given away by the major chains are coated with a plastic membrane, which means they cannot be recycled along with paper waste. The net effect is that as many as 2.5billion of the cups are sent to landfill sites every year.

Environment minister Dr Therese Coffey has signalled she wants the coffee shops to deal with the problem themselves.

However, TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has led the fight to highlight the waste, condemned inaction by the Government and the chains.

‘It’s a real shame that the minister hasn’t supported the public outrage about wasteful and polluting coffee cups by incentivising the big coffee chains to find a solution,’ he said. ‘If she thinks they are doing enough to solve the problem on their own I think she is wrong.’

Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall was particularly critical of Starbucks for dropping a promise to give customers who bring their own cup a discount of 50p after just three months. He said: ‘They sounded like they meant this as a permanent offering, but they withdrew after a measly three months – how cynical is that?’

Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Kate Parminter described the efforts by ministers and the chains as ‘pathetic’.

‘It is utterly ridiculous that the Government will not act and are sitting on their hands and hoping businesses act,’ she said.

Starbucks would not explain why it had dropped the 50p discount for people bringing cups and says it is looking at ways to publicise the 25p offer, which could involve printing it on cup sleeves. It added that it was working with suppliers to find a recyclable cup ‘that meets our standards for safety and quality’.

Costa increased the donation it makes to litter charities when people bring in their own cup from 10p to 25p in July. A spokesman said: ‘The incentive is part of our wider commitment to help find a solution to the problem.’

The chains have signed up to the Paper Cup Recycling and Recovery Group, which includes cup manufacturers, retailers and recycling firms and has pledged to increase recycling rates significantly by 2020.

Retailers are also supporting a trial in Manchester, where bins are being provided for coffee cups only. The cups are then taken for specialist recycling.