Curbing coffee cup usage

The use of disposable coffee cups could be reduced by 50 - 300 million annually according to research announced today by leading coffee roaster Bewley's. An estimated 2.5bn disposable coffee cups are used in the UK each year, creating approximately 25,000 tonnes of waste. The research, conducted from September to December 2016 by Cardiff University on behalf of Bewley's tested a range of measures that could encourage the use of re-usable coffee cups. The research found that financial incentives, re-usable alternatives, and clear messaging reminding customers of the environmental impact of single use coffee cups all had a direct impact on consumer behaviour. The study found that a charge on disposable cups increased the use of re-usable coffee cups by 3.4%, environmental messaging in cafes increased the use of re-usable coffee cups by 2.3%, the availability of re-usable cups led to an increase of 2.5%, and the distribution of free re-usable cups led to a further increase of 4. Commenting on the results, author of the report Professor Wouter Poortinga, from the Welsh School of Architecture, said: "While the increases for individual measures were modest, the greatest behavioural change was when the measures were combined". 300 million coffee cups.