Another 5p.

[longwayoff]

Starbucks is going to knock us for 5p per paper cup. We are already paying 5p per plastic carrier bag. Why are we paying for this? We consumers didnt ask suppliers to dispense with returnable glass bottles and paper bags and fill our lives with plastic. Having done so we now have to pay to get rid of it. It cant be impossible to make a recyclable coffee cup can it? I'm annoyed.

My nice Waitrose mug cost £3, and the coffee is free.

Resentment about multi million pound businesses and people is normally politics of envy or jealousy.

they certainly won't be giving all the 5ps to a marine conservation charity. Well actually.....

The trial, which will see 5p automatically added on to any paper cup purchased, will last three months and net proceeds from the cup charge will be donated to environmental charity and behaviour change experts, Hubbub. Together, we'll evaluate the results of the trial and the impact on customer behaviour, helping to reduce waste and encourage the use of reusable cups.

www.starbucks.co.uk/responsibility/environment/recycling

Is it really such a hardship having to take your own cup or shopping bag?

Compared to animal dying?

Who would choose to use plastic, full of toxins and non biodegradable, if there were an alternative on offer?

Alternatives available:

1 Your own reusable cup
2 Don't buy a take away coffee - sit down and drink the coffee in the café or bring your own flask.

Well thanks to the whinging on this thread I have found out about metal straws which I did not already know about. So I have bought one.

Metal straws, loose tea or plastic-free teabags, reusable cups, reusable sandwich wraps, shopping bags in the back of the car at all times. These are things I've managed to make permanent, not meaning to virtue signal at all, but it's quite easy. It's just a case of telling your grumbling self (I mean me) to crack on and change it, and once you've changed you forget what you did before.

The best bit is not using cling film every frigging time for the dc's sandwiches, can't believe I did that, what a berk.

All this 5p on cups and bags and paper straws is just fiddling while Rome burns, though. That's what irritates me. If we are serious about the environment then we need to introduce a carbon tax. (You could reduce income tax, for example, with the proceeds; it doesn't have to be about increasing the tax take overall, just about disincentivising certain behaviours).

you can just use your own mug/travelmug/flask.

I think it's great.

our work cantine had something like that for ages. takeaway cup +25p own cup -25p
it made a huge difference to the rubbish volume.

I think YABU- consumers did ask for this waste by expecting ease and convenience over environmental concerns. Paper cups do have a cost to the business (ok, so not reflective of the true cost to society) but they will have weighed this up against the fact that it meant they can sell more as there is consumer demand for take away coffee.

Starbucks is hardly a necessity and if their customers are really struggling to find an extra 5p then they either need to reconsider getting take away coffees or just carry a reusable cup.

I have to admit I don't carry a reusable cup with me but I get a takeaway tea maybe twice a year and I do carry a water bottle with me everywhere. I think it's disgraceful that there aren't more water bottle refill stations around- when we were on holiday in Florida loads of places had stations to refill your water bottle. Most taps in public toilets etc state they aren't drinking water. Airports should have to have refill stations as that's the only time I buy bottled water now.

Psychologically people respond differently to an extra charge than to a discount. So if they gave people 5p off if they bring their own cup, very few people would do it. But people will adapt their behavior to avoid an extra 5p charge.

I think it's a good idea. Your arguments don't stack up at all. Something has to change.

I don’t mind the additional charge, but I wish it was going towards researching a better disposable cup. I won’t use reuseable cups because I won’t refill a cup that’s had milk in it earlier in the day, I don’t have anywhere to wash one and I’m not carrying around several cups.

I’m not actually happy about coffee shops making drinks in used cups either, they’re handling them and then handling my cup etc and I don’t think it’s hygenic.

There has to be a better alternative.

Woolythoughts thats a real woolythought. You can do better I'm sure.

The Daily Fail are claiming the Starbucks 5p as their victory 🤣🤣

Take your own cup, the environment is more Important than any inconvenience or complaint about a little 5p charge. Hopefully this charge encourages people to start wanting to change things for the better.

Starbucks is expensive anyway, a little 5p more won't hurt if you don't want to take to it own cup.

StaySafe the Waitrose cups were the best I've found and they don't leak!!! Just £3 too - I've had much more expensive ones do half the job.

Of course most reusable cups are plastic too (the bamboo one I had lasted 2 weeks) and will eventually also end up in landfill. How many disposables equal one refillable that gets broken after a few weeks, lost after a month, or is poorly designed and never worked in the first place? Despite my efforts with reusable cups I'm not convinced the environment is ahead yet.

Better to change our habits so we drink coffee at home or in a cafe using a reusable cup.

Pret do 50p off if you take your own mug, which means a filter coffee is only 49p! What else is 49p in London?
I got a colourful mug from Pylones which is very light and there's plenty of space in my work handbag.

My reusable cup is bamboo and I've had it for a over month now.

I won’t use reuseable cups because I won’t refill a cup that’s had milk in it earlier in the day, I don’t have anywhere to wash one and I’m not carrying around several cups.

You seriously never have access to clean water during the day? What about going to the loo?

Why can't you make a cup of coffee at home? I have never understood it.

The Daily Mail's attitude to this is hilarious. On the one hand they like to claim credit for things like the reduction in plastic bag use and now, it would appear, Starbucks, because at one point they ran campaigns on them; on the other hand, they and their readers don't really approve of all this woolly lefty lentil-knitting stuff, believe that the environment should just be left to sort itself out, and that there's no such thing as climate change. So when they start celebrating the 5p charge they totally enrage their readers and don't quite know what to do about it.

I remember when the 5p plastic bag charge came in they published a triumphal article about how you could "beat" this horrible lefty tax on the freedom of the good old salt-of-the-earth hard working British family man (and maybe woman) in the street. Their solution? Sticking it to the man by - wait for it - reusing your old plastic bags. That'll show 'em!

I am more concerned about convenience for me.

This statement is everything that is wrong with the world.

It's ummmm not all about you...

Costa cup are recyclable why aren't Starbucks?

They aren't recyclable, they took that logo off.

They'd be better always giving proper cups to people sitting in — I never walk around with a coffee and I hate it if I'm given a takeaway cup.

Airports are especially bad. I know there's a high turnover of people but they're creating a huge amount of disposable waste.

I'd rather it were in the neighbourhood of .25, but we must start somewhere I suppose.

Bring your own cup, or at the very least, carry around a plastic lid so you can avoid the plastic component. It's not so hard.