Waitrose free coffee cups - virtue signalling?

[runningpram]

Ok so probably the most middle class post ever but I was in Waitrose with DD and saw that you now need to bring your own cup for the free instore coffee - there are no disposable cups on offer any more.
Fair enough - however the rest of the store is a bit of a sea of plastic. For instance if you want to buy a croissant and put it in your basket the only option was plastic bags - which presumably would get chucked away after a few seconds but would litter the oceans for hundreds of years. Is the coffee thing therefore just virtue signalling or AIBU?

Every little helps.

Taking your own shopping bags to the supermarket used to be seen as virtue signalling.

Really? You're partly right but I don't see the problem. It's still a step in the right direction and they don't have to offer free coffee so why not "award" those customers who bring their own cup?

Cost-cutting under the guise of being environmentally friendly - means less free cups of coffee (as people will forget to bring their own cups) and no money spent on cups themselves.

It's a step in the right direction. Just take a cup. I rarely go to Waitrose but I've started taking one to costco for the free coffee.

Their bags are biodegradable/compostable arent they?

I assumed it was more a cost saving thing for them

My Morrisons swtiched from plastic bags to paper bags for the bakery and fruit and veg about two years ago.
It may be environmentally friendly but I can't tie them closed like I could with the plastic ones so it's less hygenic as the stuff can fall into the trolley.

Every little helps.

This.

Now stop moaning.

I buy my household products from a woman who only refills old bottles. You can't buy a bottle of washing up liquid for example, you have to bring an old water bottle and she will fill it up for you.

Anywho, I was chatting to her recently and she said a lot of the packaging on food cannot realistically be changed due to food standards and also because in some cases it is counterproductive.

So, Waitrose might be absolutely right to keep some plastics while eschewing what they reasonably can. That's what we should all be doing. Even if they aren't perfect, is it better to dish out disposable cups AND have the rest of the plastics? Surely not.

Accusing environmentalists, like Greta Thunberg, of hypocrisy seems to be the favourite argument of people who do absolutely nothing to help. You know, all the middle aged men who went on about the carbon fibre in the yacht she used to sail to america to combat climate change? Yawn.

It may be environmentally friendly but I can't tie them closed like I could with the plastic ones so it's less hygenic as the stuff can fall into the trolley

Take your own sealable bag, then.

What's actually wrong with society? Why does everyone need to be spoon-fed?

I think it’s because you get a free coffee if you spend so much but they probably don’t want you to actually take that free coffee so they make it as awkward as possible.

Is the coffee thing therefore just virtue signalling or AIBU?

I am so sick of this expression. Waitrose is taking a positive step, and okay, there’s plenty more to do, but that doesn’t negate the benefits of this. Why knock it or write it off as virtue signalling?

YABVU.

Paper bag -fold down the top several times and nothing falls out.

Waitrose could do a lot better regarding plastic. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be doing anything. Not hard to take a reusable coffee cup. Or buy one of theirs if you don’t have one already.

Waitrose are trialling packaging free foods (where you take a container and weigh only as much as you need) so I think they are actually making more effort than some. Certainly more than a couple of people on this thread seem prepared to do.

No, I don’t think it’s virtue signalling.The Waitrose near me has paper bags for croissants.

You can take your own containers to Waitrose for meat and fish products not packaged. The fruit and veg bags are biodegradable.
They are doing a reasonable job and looking to do more.

I agree with PPs that it is a step in the right direction but also kinda agree with the OP that there's a lot of virtue signaling going on right now both by retailers and individuals. We all need to do better but being all virtuous about using a paper sandwich bag rather than cling film is just not good enough when you take several holidays abroad a year and drive a Diesel engine 4x4 to take your DCs a 10 minute walk to school. People need to practice more and preach less.

Practically everything you buy in a supermarket comes in plastic packaging. Milk, bread, yoghurt, crackers, crisps, shampoo, lots of fruit and veg etc etc. It's not just waitrose that do this.

I'd happily see an end to all disposable cups personally. Have a hot drink at in a china cup at home or in a cafe. Reusable cup/thermos for longer journeys. I can't see a problem with waitrose getting rid of them.

The carrier bag thing a few years ago had people moaning and whining and it's been a huge success, taking your own bags has become habitual. Disposable cups will soon follow suit I hope. We all have a responsibility to make these very minor changes in our every day lives to save this poor planet and look after the wildlife.. or what's left of it.

I’d rather do something than nothing. Call me a hypocrite but I’d rather be a hypocrite than do fuck all because that’s the arseholes way out.

The coffee is a then n there thing, so you’re either going to get some for now or not. But you might buy 4+ bakery things to take home for tomorrow.. if there were no bags and you hadn’t brought reusable produce bags yourself (they exist amazon has them in various styles from veg to bread bags) you wouldn’t just chuck 4 pastry/cakes into your hand bag for tomorrow..

And obviously you wouldn’t take coffee home to do you tomorrow, you drink it hot as you go.

It’s really good and everywhere should do this IMO!

would litter the oceans for hundreds of years.

Stop throwing your litter in the sea.

I've never quite understood why the eco-brigade ignore shop cakes. Two cream cakes, for example, are packaged in a plastic box. Two gulps from some people (not me) and they're gone, leaving a useless plastic box to go into landfill.

And they're fattening. While I don't really care if people stuff themselves into an early grave (that's their choice) it does grate that a sugar tax has been applied to drinks that I buy and dilute because I don't like the sweetener aftertaste - yet the plastic-boxed cakes are somehow sacrosanct.

Cakes aren't difficult to make, for heaven's sake!

Bakery section in our Waitrose uses brown paper bags for all the items sold loose including croissants.