Wednesday 24 August 2016
Local cafés and coffee outlets are helping to reduce waste locally by encouraging customers to bring their own cups with them.
The news that recycling processors will not accept takeaway cups was recently highlighted in BBC1's War on Waste programme, presented by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It reported that 2.5 billion paper cups are used every year in the UK and these cannot be recycled due to their composite cardboard/plastic construction.
States' Waste Prevention and Recycling Officer, Tina Norman-Ross, has written to local coffee shops and retailers asking them to make it clear that the familiar cardboard cups are not recyclable. Instead they are being encouraged to promote the use of reusable cups.
"Up until recently the advice from our processors was that they could accept coffee cups. However that has now changed, and we are being asked to keep these out because they won't be recycled. This is not a local issue, it is UK-wide," she said.
"Takeaway coffee has seen an enormous growth in the last few years, to the extent that it is difficult to go down any busy street now and not see someone carrying one. That adds up to many thousands of cups every year, all of which will end up in landfill. We just want people to be aware that they are not recyclable, and if they want to help cut waste, please get a reusable cup
Hopefully it shouldn't be difficult to make a big difference. Grabbing a coffee is often planned, maybe on the way to work or at lunchtime, rather than an impulse buy. Just like most of us take our own bags when we go to the supermarket, we hope coffee lovers will do similar with their cups."
Café Délices is one local outlet that had already taken the initiative. It has stocked a range of porcelain cups since May, and offers customers a discount on hot drink purchases to incentivise these. As well as displaying these prominently in the café, it also has promoted the initiative via social media.
Café Délices owner and manager, Andy Taylor, said:
"We were previously using about 500 of the paper cups per week and we just didn't see this as sustainable so we wanted to offer an alternative.
The reusable cups are high quality and durable and will minimise waste, which is especially important now that we know that the cardboard cups cannot be recycled."
Waitrose also sells reusable cups in both its Guernsey stores, and is making these more prominent by its coffee dispensers.
Bean 14, a local coffee roaster and supplier, has cancelled a large order of Bean 14 branded cardboard cups following the recent BBC programme, and is now looking at reusable options to supply to their customers.
Mrs Norman-Ross, said:
"Obviously, retailers have a big role to play, and the feedback we have had so far has been encouraging. It is now going to be down to customers to make their own choices."
Although islanders are being advised not to put takeaway drinks cups in their clear recycling bags or bring banks, this does not affect other cardboard food packaging. Milk and juice cartons, and other similar containers, undergo a different recycling process and can still go into blue kerbside bags.
