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Single use cups and bottles
Single use, disposable cups (such as coffee cups) and bottles (such as for bottled water) create a lot of waste. This is avoidable.
Thinking about your own experience, what could retailers do to make you use a reusable cup or bottle? What do you think the benefits would be, or what concerns would you have?
42 Comments
the short answer is nothing. The question you should be asking is how to make certain the containers are fully recyclable. At present the paper cup can not be recycled. you should also be asking how you stop people littering the streets and how you ensure they dispose of the recyclable containers properly and in a way that gives everyy oportunity to ensure they are taken for recycling
Absolutely. The onus should be on company's selling these products to consumers, and the proliferation of those cafes all over London. Give prefential rates to cafes with recyclable cups.
Rather than selling you a cup of coffee in a free take-away cup, charge for the take-away cup (similar to a plastic bag charge). Make it compulsory for shops to offer to refill water bottles free of charge (and to have a sign to indicate this).
YES!!!! this fee should be then collected by the city for recycling schemes.
Yes, completely agree! It's so easy to do - some takeaway places/cafes already offer jugs of tap water for customers to help themselves - why not all?
I completely agree!
Go back to the old deposits on bottles system, as kids we would go round parks and open spaces and collect bottles for the deposit, thus helping clean up where others couldn't be bothered to, say a £1 returnable deposit to make it worth peoples while, & make them think if they actually need that coffee.
Perhaps an independent study into bottled & tap water, if people realised there wasn't that much difference, and realised the process of bottling water to sell, its a huge process, not some bubbling stream in a meadow.
The main issue is attitude, we have a use & go attitude to many things nowadays, not just food & drink containers, but tents at festivals, clothing, they have become cheap & therefore of little value to the people who buy them
Right now there are few recycleable cups and bottles on offer. If recycleable cups and bottles were provided then it would make sense to incentivise using them. The cost of disposing of non-recycleable cups and bottles does not fall on the outlets and manufacturers that produce them, a classic economic external cost. The classic economic remedy is to tax non-recycleable cups and bottles by enough to convince the providers to offer recycleable alternatives. The mandatory charge for plastic bags has had a good effect. Applying a visible charge can work.
We live in a plastic world Everything I purchase has some plastic wrapping If something is not done (by law) soon the sea and earth will sink with it.
Recycling is not the solution, it is part of the problem.
How can we take recycling seriously when supermarkets are allowed to (for example) sell tin cans in packs of four wrapped in plastic? When most of the plastic we 'recycle' has 'not currently recyclable' printed on it? When a large proportion of our 'recycling' is reportedly shipped to Asia?
I don't believe most of what we 'recycle' is actually recycled but if I am wrong and it is, what is the environmental cost of that process?
Why doesn't anyone seem to want to cut down on the need to recycle by not producing this rubbish in the first place?
I agree, they should think of alternative packaging that does not harm the environment. I don't understand why they never tackle the problem from the root cause, it just makes more sense...
The biggest problem I have with reusable bags, cups and bottles is that I have carry them around with me, and I rarely remember to take bags with me to the shop. If I’m going shopping in central I won’t take backpack or anything to carry a reusable cup. It would be better if say starbucks cups were non disposable and you could return it to any Starbucks to be washed and reused. Even better if this worked across coffee chains.
But you *would* remember if there was no alternative (and I say that kindly!). In other countries where there is a culture of taking own shoppoing bags etc, people don't forget - it's habit.
London, UK needs to get its finger out and roll out a bottle deposit scheme. It is tried and tested. It works and would help with the street rubbish considerably. Most boroughs can't even keep the bins from overflowing.
It is time to start charging for for rubbish at the source.
Mayor get your thinking cap on and roll it out already.
agreed
Agreed - it's hugely successful in Germany.
My son just returned from Berlin, no plastic bottles, they've got glass bottles and you get paid to return them just like it used to be here. My son who is 20 thought this was great idea, homeless people, students, etc collect bottles and trade them in for cash.
Retailers should OFFER you to use your own cup or bottle on every purchase to raise awareness and normalise the situation, making sustainability the default.
If the customer wants a cup or bottle, first OFFER them a reusable one to drink in.
If the customer wants to take it away, charge a deposit for a reusable take-away cup or bottle so that the customer has to return it (not necessarily at the same establishment, though).
The benefits would be a massive reduction in the amount of waste produced and the associated environmental benefits.
I've noticed when I visit my local chain store coffee shop it's become a given to serve customers in the paper/plastic cups (like it's a fashion accessory to hold the cup with the green mermaid on it) regardless on if the customer is drinking their beverage in store or taking it away.
I would be great if hot and COLD drinks particularly were offered in reusable cups and, maybe use an initiative to charge for take away cups to boost this further.
Notice how cold drinks have no alternative but the plastic cups?!?! Make it an experience and serve those frappucinos in tall glasses
Taking own cup with you isn't very convenient. Actually I use disposable cups at home when I go out so I can throw it away instead of keeping wet cup in my bag to take it home.
I would focus on making it easier to recycle.
I think plastic bottles should have a deposit attached to them - recycle the bottle, get the deposit back.
I'd want to go further and ban single-use, small plastic bottles altogether but I'm not sure the public would be happy. It's a waste of plastic.
Glass is heavy and dangerous. Tetra packs are even more difficult to recycle. For now on I'll stay with plastic bottles. However I wish rubbish from public bins would be recycled. I recycle at home but am too lazy to take empty bottles home.
There are not enough water fountains to use refillable bottles and the quality of existing once is questionable. Tap water gets smelly after few hours in the heat. Bottle water stars fresh for weeks.
I take my own reusable cup with a lid (bought for a few quid) to my local costa near my work and they give me a 30p discount each time for bringing my own cup. This is not widely advertised nor something all chains / coffee shops do but it's a pretty good idea.
The loyalty points I am collecting can't be used on a discounted coffee though?! So loyalty and discounts would be a good way incentivise wider use of reusable cups.
The thing about refilling water in your own bottle is nozzle hygiene... depending on how it's done of course.
I recently read that reusing a water bottle is absolutely fine, you just need to wash it just like you would wash a cup.
This requires some innovation. In 1970s we used to get 2p back on glass pop bottles brought back to the shop. These were then taken back to the bottling plant for re-loading. Recycling plastics seemingly is about rendering the waste plastic into new plastic. The rendering process can be expensive and contribute to other forms of pollution and greenhouse gases. What is required is for someone to invent a lightweight vessel that can be returned to the bottling factory for re-sterilisation and re-use. The person who can invent this will be as rich as the person who can invent a cure for baldness !
I completely agree with "Bond Street"'s comments below!
The technology already exists for disposable cups, plates and utensils that are biodegradable. It amazes me that this is not a mainstream requirement. Sure it costs more, but it would be multiple times more effective in protecting the environment than charging people for non-biodegradable materials. Also, the higher cost for businesses to use biodegradable materials that will be passed on to consumers will in effect be like the additional charge proposed for non-biodegradable products so it has no worse effect.
I think retailers should be forced to offer reusable cups when available, some coffee shops (Costa in Victoria rail station is one of them, but not the only one) tend to offer disposable ones by default, even when you've stated you're staying and prefer a china cup.
Offices as well do nothing about it. My company have china cups that everybody can use, clean, available, enough in number. but they also have a water cooler with disposable cups so people use these, and they don't even reuse them but take 3-4 a day.
Allowing reusable cups to be disposed of easily (so for example you buy one coffee at Borough station, drink it in your way to office then dispose of it at costa liverpool st station). so you don't have to carry it the whole day.
You can have people pay an extra £5 when taking this cup then money is returned when they drop it at the other shop (no cost for user, and shops are guarenteed they're actually returned). maybe a lot of hassle to implement this though.
All previous replies have constructive suggestions which would help reduce waste. However, in my experience it is only when a measure is made compulsory that it becomes widely effective. The charge on plastic shopping bags is a prime example -and this 10p small charge doesnt really break anyone's bank. Does the Mayor have the power to introduce such a measure? I hope he does and will use it.
Thanks everyone for sharing your views and suggestions. We’ll share these with our Environment Team.
Many of you like the idea of a charge for single use cups and bottles, and a bottle deposit scheme. The draft Environment Strategy proposes the feasibility of a deposit scheme for water bottles, which will be investigated through the government’s litter strategy working group.
Do you think this could work in London or not? And how?
Talk London
I think that a deposit scheme would work, as lots of other people have said, but not using so many plastic bottles in the first place would be even better.
Use of reusable bottles should be made easy - two ways are providing drinking fountains in the streets, as in Italy, Austria etc. These don't even have to be permanent or plumbed in expensively - in Vienna in the summer there are movable ones that are put out on the streets temporarily. Even easier is to compel any business selling takeaway drinks to also provide tap water free of charge for refilling water bottles.
Socially, using reusable bottles and coffee cups needs to be the default - so for the barista always to ask for your own cup before fetching a disposable one, charging more for a disposable cup, pointing out the tap water when people ask for a bottle etc. It's all about a shift in mindset as much as changes in policy.
We should aim to reduce before recycle. Many people seem to think that recycling magically reuses every part of a 'recyclable' item and they seem to forget the energy used to perform the recycling - let alone the energy needed to produce the next 'recyclable' item for them to use. People feel good when they recycle something and they've come to believe that they can use as much as they want as long as they recycle it. Education explaining that recycling is good but reducing and reusing is better should be a priority. Most people are inherently lazy and many find it a chore to carry an empty plastic bottle with them let alone a full one. Also on a (rare) hot day I might buy a bottle of something cold rather than drink the warm water that I by then have in my bag. If I could easily fill my bottle with cool water I would never buy a drink when out for the day. If you have visited the Hampton Court Flower Show on a hot day and have seen the long queues of people waiting patiently to re-fill their water bottles you would see that for whatever reason people will do this.
The mayor should use his powers to force all establishments to offer re-usable hot drinks containers. They could have a lid and even a bag to keep them in, to avoid the problem of carrying around a dirty wet cup in your bag. Currently companies prefer to give throw-away containers because they have their branding on them, but given enough time, they could easily make branded re-usable cups. There have to be laws and financial incentives. As other commentators have said, the charge for plastic bags has been a huge success, because it was compulsory. Voluntary schemes never work. It takes time for people to learn new habits.
In addition I think all premises that have the facilities to do washing up should be forced to offer china cups as an alternative to take- away ones.
Drinking water should be available in the streets for free.
Adverts featuring throw-away bottles should be banned. Adverts for mineral water in throw-away bottles should be banned.
There should be educational campaigns in schools, through posters and ads in newspapers, to make people aware of the damage being done by our throw-away society.
I volunteer to clean parks and the Thames and canals of litter. One thing we see lots of that hasn't been mentioned is STYROFOAM packaging. It takes donkeys years to decompose and could easily be banned and cardboard used instead. McDonalds/KFC got rid of it years ago; the Mayor should ban it London-wide and force kebab and other takeaways to stop using it.
Deposits on bottles would be great as others have suggested
Wonderful initiative by Borough Market to ban the sale of single use plastic bottles and instal water fountains. These should be available in public spaces throughout London, starting, for example, in Trafalgar Sq.
All cafes should be forced to collect cups for recycling (just like Costa's new pilot program), accepting cups from any cafe. The on-street green recycling bins need to accept cups for recycling. Or cafes should be forced to only serve cups that are already widely recyclable (no plastic lining).
Meanwhile, an extra charge for a take-away cup will be much more incentivizing than a discount. People's brains are funny like that.
People will not change their habits if businesses make it too easy to be lazy. The responsibility must fall on businesses because they are reaping huge profits off the degradation of our shared planet by encouraging our lazy nature.
Single use plastic bottles should not be sold in sizes smaller than 1 L. Cafes/Prets/etc and especially airports need to advertise their willingness to fill bottles for free. London streets need water fountains.
Also, companies that hand out free samples on London streets need to prove that they have a clean up team to pick up and recycle the mess they make. Coke was recently handing out tiny single use cans, which after 30 seconds absolutely FLOODED Oxford street. People were kicking them around for days. Single-use sample packaging needs to be cleaned up by the company handing them out.
I remember a time when there were water fountains (mainly in recreational areas). This meant you could have drinking water, without the need for any type of cup or bottle at any time of day or night. How practical would it be to reinstall drinking fountains throughout the capital?
We have seen the charge for single use plastic bags reduce the numbers used dramatically. Why not do the same with cups and water bottles. Or again, go back to the old idea of charging a refundable deposit on bottles.
Why not biogradable cups and bottles?
Initially these would cost more but prices will come down.
If biogradable will dissolve into harmless organics. So no more floating bottles in the sea choking fish OR as an aside, plastic bags doing the same.
Some retailers offer a discount for people using their own coffee cups, such as Le Pain Quotidien. There should be more recycling points throughout the capital for lots of things, such as paper and plastic and coffee cups. The Germans are very good at this, and have been doing it for years, you can see recycling points at railway stations and in the street. Why not London?
There is no problem in Germany recycling plastic bottles and metal cans. Aldi and Lidl and most other supermarkets over there have machines that receive the empties, scan them and refund the deposit as a voucher so that it can be taken off the next shopping bill. Also people can be seen picking up any discarded bottles as they can claim the refund on them too. Every little helps!
Why can't coffee shops
have 'must have' logos on them and even sell them? What is wrong with washing the cups up? A local tea shop in Sidcup uses recycled china cups and saucers which all get washed up without leaving rubbish on the streets. People 'on the go' would be better with a reusable screw top flask.
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