10th June 2023
Carry a keep-cup or re-usable coffee (or tea) cup and guard against the waste of single use cups. Whilst many cafes do serve their drinks in reusable, ceramic cups or glasses, others offs single use cups instead.
A typical single use cup requires 0.58 litres of water to produce and has a carbon footprint equivalent to up to 60.9 grammes of carbon dioxide ( https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/26/why-britains-25-billion-paper-coffee-cups-are-an-eco-disaster) and as few as 1 in 400 are actually recycled with most ending up,in landfill sites.
NB cups etc labelled as ‘compostable’ will not rot down in a garden compost bin – they need to be recycled via an industrial composting site.
Items labelled as biodegradable will break down but the process may take years and may leave a residue of harmful chemicals. (https://www.biffa.co.uk/biffablog/2021/january/recyclable-compostable-and-biodegradable-what-do-these-mean-for-our-planet)
The Green Tau 