To think we're approaching the plastic cup problem in entirely the wrong way?

[thereareflowersinmygarden]

So far, the main suggestion to replace disposable plastic cups, is a slightly less disposable cup?

We invented genuinely reusable cups quite a long time ago...

We need to start slowing down and actually sitting down for a cuppa again.

why is it always takeaway coffee anyway? it’s never tea, as that isn’t cool enough, according to the teens round here.

Mine is always tea. but then I've never been cool.

Riddley, I meant that if you like decent coffee you don’t drink it out of a takeaway mug.

this will be why so many people happily breathe their coffee breath all over you when they’re talking. Because they’ve had their coffee on the go after they’ve left home so didn’t brush their teeth after it.

We should just ban tea and coffee [s🤮

What we need is Italian style coffee bars where the barista makes the coffee quickly and you’re expected to stand around at the bar for c. 5mins drinking it, chatting to whoever else is there and people watching.

There’s too much bloody stuff to lug round these days. Now work have given us all a ‘device’ (laptop to you and me) and taken away all set computers we also have to lug the ‘device’ to other offices along with the charger!

Add to that note book, pen, purse, my phone, work phone and my poor back is really in for it! A plastic cup of cold coffee might quite literally be the cup that breaks the majors back!

(It’s like virtue signalling, except it’s to show how busy your life is (what, you REALLY have no time to make a coffee as you’re getting ready for work in the morning? Or make one when you get to work 20 mins later?

Do you not think maybe you're reading just a touch too much into it all? I sometimes get a coffee when out and about. There is no virtue signalling, I've never even considered that people might make big scenarios up about why I am doing so. Its not mysterious, I get one when I fancy a coffee. That's all. Maybe I was running late and didn't have time at home, maybe I just didn't want one then and I do now.

tbh I think its much odder for you to have such an issue built up about people drinking coffee than it is for them to be drinking coffee....

Buttered: tea on the go is wrong. There should be 3 categories of tea drinking: one is the just nice “ a lovely cup of tea and a break and a little contented sigh” type of cup (best enjoyed in bed or when getting in from a stressful day at work; the other is “you’re in shock, you need a cup of tea” type of caring tea-making , the third is a good old Thermos and a picnic blanket on a freezing beach type of scenario.

On-the-go slurping in a hurry is just. Plain. Wrong.

No idea why I’m getting so investing over other people’s tea and coffee drinking habits. Oh, another thing which irritates me is my parents using the phrase “would you like a hot drink?” I don’t know why it does, I think it’s in the same way that some people cringe at the word “meal”.

I don't get takeaway tea because if I leave it to steep long enough for me then I might as well have sat down in the cafe and drunk it. If I take it away I have to add milk before the tea bag is out which is all kinds of wrong. I then have a teabag to remove and dispose of at some point. There is none of this faff with a lovely cup of coffee ☺️

I went for a coffee today at costa (hospital break) and they didn't have any china cups at all. Only those non recyclable paper one. really annoyed me and so I just got a Pepsi max instead

I'm not saying, stop drinking poncey coffee. I'm saying you should sit down for five minutes and drink it from a proper cup.

I drink tea from real cups though.

Yes I think the coffee culture should return to being a social thing plus a break type of thing like on the continent. Better for everyone’s wellbeing.

I really enjoy my morning coffee while I’m on the train. It’s nicer than I can make at home or at work and I drink it from a reusable glass cup. Hope this is acceptable.

I used to have a 45 minute train commute. Cup of tea to watch the world go by for it was marvellous.

why is it always takeaway coffee anyway? it’s never tea, as that isn’t cool enough, according to the teens round here.

It is literally not cool enough, tea takes ages longer to be cool enough to drink.

Realistically, tea is replicable at home/in the office for a much lower cost, and more to my taste. The same is not true of coffee, particularly as I refuse to buy one of the waste-creating pod machines and I don’t have space for a full Gaggia at home.

My local coffee place makes cracking coffee. If I have time I love sitting in a cafe leisurely sipping my coffee. However, between dropping my kids at breaksfast club and nursery and getting to work at a reasonable time, I just can’t squeeze in that 20 minutes, sadly.

Hot drinks in a paper or plastic cup taste shite anyway. True coffee connoisseurs wouldn’t ever drink it out of a takeaway cup, slugging it down every so often as they queue for the the barrier and then again on the escalator.

Lucky I have a reusable (non-plastic!) cup so I won’t incur your cutting ire! seriously, I don’t give a shit if I’m a ‘true connoisseur’ (😂😂) or not. I like my coffee on the way to work. I’m happy with it in a reusable cup. I haven’t the time or the inclination to be a coffee snowflake!

I have a nice metal carry cup thing with a screw on lid with a picture of my dogs on it. It's ace I can chuck it in my handbag (no spills!). So I do wait to drink it until I'm settled at my desk checking emails but don't have to drink the bogging Nescafe work supplies.

My question is this... on a particularly bad day I might nip up to the coffee shop up the road at lunch for SECOND COFFEE. I assume they won't wash my cup out for me that has dregs of now foosty old coffee in it and lipstick marks around the drinking hole will they? So I get a takeaway cup shamefully and pay the extra 50p

Yes I think the coffee culture should return to being a social thing plus a break type of thing like on the continent. Better for everyone’s wellbeing

What continent? you think there is no coffee shops in Europe?

I just switched to a reuseable cup now that Starbucks are selling them for a pound - cos I'm a cheap arse who wants 25/50p off my coffee It took me a while to get past hygiene concerns though - who knows where other people's grubby cups have been? The pub I used to work at banned reusing pint glasses without washing them, as often they would touch the beer tap when pouring and could pass on germs. I hope the coffee shops aren't reusing their milk spoons etc any more

Ordinary cups are no good when you have to make a quick exit with your child having a meltdown. With ds I always use a takeaway cup.

It is a bit like sippy cups for grown ups.

I can't drink coffee while walking about, I prefer to save it for when I have time to sit down and have a proper cup.

I always assume the people that carry them about are the same ones who claim to not be able to function without their caffeine fix or some such.

It's big business though and I don't think there's any going back.

@hamandcheesebaguette that's what I worry about too - how many grim used cups do they get handed in, and do they rinse them first?

Anyone work for a coffee chain who wants to put my mind at rest? It's making me squicky just thinking about it!

I'm not saying, stop drinking poncey coffee. I'm saying you should sit down for five minutes and drink it from a proper cup

But what if I don't want to?

I’m a teacher, I don’t have time to just casually sit down with a cuppa so flasks are a godsend... I have a flask and will buy a cappuccino on my way into work and at lunch from the women at the college cafe. Some colleagues take in their own mugs and do it that way but I don’t want mine going cold!

I assume they won't wash my cup out for me that has dregs of now foosty old coffee in it and lipstick marks around the drinking hole will they?

You can’t wash it yourself at work?

I drink my tea out of my bod reusable tea thing. I have very little time in the morning. Would rather spend longer in me. Have 1 hour on the train and love sitting there watching Netflix or on mumsnet drinking my tea. Sets me up.

Couldn't give a shiny shit what anyone around me thinks. Certainly not virtue signalling. It just suits me.

Curly I'll give you one and 2 but you can't have 3 because Thermos tea tastes weird. Though not as weird as thermos coffee which is properly horrible.

Tea on the train or when DH is driving is winning at life.