Coffee Cups

Did you know that across the world we create over 500 BILLION disposable cups every year? If we placed each of those cups end to end they would circle the earth 1360 times. The UK throws away approximately 2.5 billion takeaway coffee cups every year at a rate of around 5000 a minute. But they’re made of paper, so that’s OK, right? Unfortunately this is only partly true. After years of naively putting my takeaway cups in a recycling bin, I’ve learned that the majority of them will have ended up in a landfill anyway.

Although these cups are mostly made of paper, our hot drinks don’t seep through and scald us because they are lined with a layer of polyethylene. Fewer than 1 in 400 disposable cups are recycled because most recycling plants don’t have the facilities to separate the plastic from the paper. Paper is also more problematic than I had previously thought. Although we do recycle paper and have created tree farms to source it, still more than 70% of the world’s paper supply comes from diminishing forests. Globally, we use around 300 million tons of paper per year, with demand having grown by 400% in the last 40 years. Nearly 4 billion trees are chopped down every year to meet this demand. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that continuing at this rate it not sustainable. Unfortunately, when it comes to disposable cups, the vast majority are not made from recycled paper due to contamination concerns.

It gets worse though, I’m afraid, when you consider that most disposable cups only consist of around 5% of the resources and raw materials it takes to make and deliver them. One tonne of paper, for example, is made using 98 tonnes of resources. There's more waste produced by our takeaway coffee than we ever imagined!

It’s not all doom and gloom though, because we as individuals can make changes that have a huge impact. There are loads of reusable cups available from hundreds of different companies. My personal favourite, though, is the KeepCup. As pictured, their most popular design is made mostly from glass and cork, it looks cool and in the long term is a much better option than reusable plastic. Though the lid is still plastic, it is a dramatic improvement; KeepCup have worked out that one of their cups is about equal in plastic content to 20 disposable cups. They are also very concerned about the environmental impact of their manufacturing and say that, when compared to a disposable cup, the KeepCup reduces carbon emissions from 36-47%, water use by 64-85% and landfill waste by 91-92%. In fact, all things considered, it takes just 15 coffees in a KeepCup to break even with the environmental cost of disposable cups. Considering these things can last years and years, that’s pretty good value. They also do a lot of environmental campaigning and are generally a great ethical company where I am more than happy to spend my dollar! From experience using my cup, the glass keeps your drink warm for a good amount of time, the cork protects your hands while you hold it, and the plug is great for going in and out of shops and walking around without spilling your precious caffeine.

More good news is that the issue is starting to gain more attention, a group of MPs are campaigning for a ‘Latte Levy’, and coffee shops are starting to act as well. Pret seem to be taking the greatest action, offering a 50p discount for customers that bring in reusable cups (this means filter coffee for 49p!), while Starbucks and Costa are offering 25p discounts and Caffe Nero a double stamp on your loyalty card (when you consider 9 stamps gets you a free drink then this is not as stingy as it seems).

All things considered, why on earth would we continue to use disposable cups?