No excuse for single use
- May 31, 2018
We joined the global war on plastic some time ago. We stopped using plastic straws and plastic bottles, and have always done what we can to reduce, reuse and recycle. However, the elephant in the room was still the vast amount of single use coffee cups which left our cafes, only to be tossed into a bin, or worse, on the ground.
The figures are astonishing.
Only 1 in 400 (0.25%) of the estimated 2.5 billion plastic coated coffee cups* used in the UK each year are recycled. 4%, approximately 500,000, are littered every day. The rest (95.75%) go into landfill. Many compostable alternatives also end up in landfill as there aren’t enough accessible facilities in the UK to compost them.
We looked at the reality of the situation and realised there was only one way forward that would really make a difference. To stop issuing single use coffee cups altogether.
When you pop in for a takeaway coffee, these are your options:
- To bring your own reusable cup
We don’t care what it looks like, what it’s made of, or where you got it from, if it can hold your coffee, we’ll fill it up.
- To buy a reusable cup
We’ve teamed up with the brilliant Ecoffee Cups to offer you a subsidised, biodegradable reusable option. You can pick from a rainbow of colours, prices start from £4.25.
- To use our “loan cup scheme”
Because we all can be a bit forgetful, we’ve set up a refundable deposit scheme so you can ‘loan’ a cup from us. Drop it back to any of our cafes and get a full refund.
The response we’ve had to the ban is incredible. This was a decision we made in line with our ethos of Making Things Better and it seems as though people are up for joining us in our mission to eradicate coffee cup waste.
We’re proud to be the first and we want others to join us. With your help this can be a movement.
We realise this will mean an adjustment in the short term, but hope you agree it’s the right thing to do.