What should I have done with this coffee cup?

[DitherDother]

OK yes, I should have used a reusable one, but I didn't.

I bought a cup of coffee on Brighton Station earlier. I couldn't see a bin on the train so I took it with me when I got off at London Victoria. I couldn't see a bin on the station so I carried it with me on the tube, still no bins, then another train out of London, still no bins. I looked after that cup for 3.5 hours until I could put it in the bin outside the station at my final destination 😆

Should I have just left it on the first train?

Are you sure there wasn’t a bin in the train? There usually are?

Unless it was a special kind of paper cup that can be recycled then, you did all you could.

Having a coffee when out and about is fraught with guilt for me and I have frequently gone home dehydrated because I cannot bring myself to buy coffee in a paper cup.

Well actually it claimed to be compostible, so shouldn't have gone in a bin at all. I've no idea where I really should have put it because even at home, our green waste bins are just for garden waste, not other compositibles.

There are bins on those trains by the doors, but they’re not always that easy to see and are often full. But as the train terminated at Victoria you could have left it on one of the tables - the cleaning crew comes through and picks up all the rubbish anyway. Preferable to carrying it round town for hours

I'd have done exactly what you did and looked after the cup for 3.5 hours if I couldn't find a bin.
Littering really gets my back up and I was always told if there's no bin, you keep it till there is one. And at the grand old age of 41 I still think of my mum warning me never to litter!

I had a good look in the area by the doors, which I'd usually expect to find one, but I hadn't used that line before.

You could have left it on the train as a staff member will go through the train collecting rubbish at the end of a journey.

Yes, exactly that!

You can't leave it for someone else to clear up (on the train) either ...

Well, not as a general rule, no.
But if it was the end of the line the cleaner will come through to empty the bins anyway.

If no bin is provided and you've genuinely properly checked then leaving a coffee cup on the train is fine. Train companies have a duty to provide some reasonable service for people who need to dispose of rubbish.

After 3.5 hours in its company I'd have drawn a face on it and given it a name