Charge urged for coffee cups to reduce waste

Charging for disposable coffee cups could help cut their use by up to 300 million a year, new research suggests.

It is estimated that coffee lovers in the UK get through 2.5 billion disposable cups every twelve months - translating into about 25,000 tonnes of waste.

But only about one in 400 is recycled.

That is because they are made from plastic wrapped in paper - and the mixed material makes them hard to recycle.

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To make them waterproof, the card is fused with polyethylene - a material that cannot be separated out again in a standard recycling mill.

There are only two sites in the UK where the film is separated from the plastic.

Academics from Cardiff University tested a series of ideas to encourage consumers to use re-usable cups.

In addition to the charge, there were messages reminding people about the environmental impact of single use cups, while free re-usable cups were made available.

In one cafe, the three measures combined increased the use of re-usable cups from from 5.1% to 17.4%.

Professor Wouter Poortinga, who wrote the report, said that while the measures only had a "modest" impact when used alone, "the greatest behavioural change was when the measures were combined".

He added: "Our results show that, on average, the use of reusable coffee cups could be increased by up to 12.5% with a combination of measures.

"With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) 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 coffee cups."

But while a charge on disposable cups had an impact, a discount on re-usable cups did not.

"People are far more sensitive to losses than to gains when making decisions," Professor Poortinga said.

"So if we really want to change a customer's behaviour then a charge on a disposable cup is more likely to be effective."

But the British Coffee Association disagreed with that approach.

Its executive director, Chris Stemman, told Sky News: "We believe that developing new packaging materials and enhancing recycling processes and infrastructures will have a significantly greater and longer-term impact compared with other proposed measures such as charging or taxing disposable cups."

The 5p charge for a plastic bag has had a dramatic effect - cutting their use by 85%.

Andrew Pendleton from Friends of the Earth said: "Preferably, non-recyclable paper cups should just be banned outright so that consumers can go into a cafe and simply be served with a cup that can be recycled.

"We have seen the great environmental benefits that a small charge on carrier bags has made, so we know measures like this are proven to work, and are therefore a progressive step in the right direction."