Disposable cups are a problem. They are bad for the environment, they are hard-to-recycle and they are often seen littering our streets and countryside.

It’s an issue that has been talked about for many years and we are now fully aware of the problems caused by disposable cups. We probably all own a reusable cup (some of us have a selection). So why are disposable cups not a thing of the past? Carbon Neutral Aldbourne’s Ros Oswald investigates…

“I enjoy using a reusable cup. Its easier to drink from and it does save me money sometimes. I decided to find out how much I could save and where by visiting different places and seeing how much the discounts might be. It was just idle curiosity for me. What I did not expect to find was that more and more companies are not offering a discount at all. There is a move towards offering an improvement on the loyalty card scheme but that wasn’t what I had wanted to see. I decided to look into this in more detail and here is what I found out.

First of all – the results…

LOYALTY CARD SCHEME
Costa Marlborough, and Cafe Nero Marlborough didn’t offer any discount but did offer me an extra bean on my loyalty card, if I had one.

CASH DISCOUNT
Esso Garage Chippenham gave the largest discount at £1. Tesco in Ocotal Way gave 30p. Two privately owned cafes – Mercers in Marlborough and the Post Office in Aldbourne did not have a set scheme but were willing to offer a discount on request of 10p.

The National Trust has a very interesting approach with 25p discount for using a reusable mug and a 25p extra charge if you request a cup that can be recycled but is not reusable.

NOTHING
Costa in Dobbies Hungerford have a website saying they offer 25p per cup off but in reality do not give this. The staff found this confusing! Dobbies offers 2 free coffees a month to people holding a Dobbies card but this is unrelated to usage of a reusable cup. KFC does not offer any discount at all and the staff member I spoke to was not happy about this.

Next – what is really going on…

I found this very confusing so decided to find out more about the loyalty scheme idea. In 2018 Costa partnered with Valpak Ltd to set up the National Cup Recycling Scheme. Since then a number of other companies including Cafe Nero, Prêt a Manger, Macdonalds, Greggs and Burger King have joined the scheme. The idea is that Valpak Ltd will take away recyclable cups from any of the member organisations and recycle them.

Although we know recycling is not the best solution its better than nothing. However, the reality is that according to Valpak’s figures they have only recycled 176 million coffee cups since April 2018. That sounds like quite a lot until you realise that according to Government figures 3.2 billion are used every year of which half a million coffee cups are littered every day. Therefore, Valpak have recycled 1.09% of all the cups used.

As far as I can see Valpak Ltd is a private company with declared profits of £6.25 million in 2021. To be fair, it recycles other products as well so the profits are not generated solely from recycling coffee cups.

But who are the winners and losers in this?

The winners

1. Valpak Ltd
2. The companies who no longer give cash discounts whilst still selling reusable cups

The losers

1. Everyone who bought a reusable cup
2. The environment.

So what can we do about it?

1. Use your reusable cup wherever possible. Even without a discount you are still doing the planet some good.
2. Demand change from your favourite coffee shops. Let them know how you feel about disposable cups.
3. Talk about it with friends and family.
4. Write to your local MP and let the government know that change is needed.