Campaigners are now issuing fresh calls for a plastic bag-style nickel charge to tackle the waste caused by large multinational coffee chains.
Less than one percent of to-go cups served by chains like Costa, Starbucks and Tim Horton’s can be recycled because they include a plastic membrane that cannot easily be separated.
As a result, an estimated 2.5 billion are trashed and then end up in landfills where they take decades or generations to degrade, all-the-while releasing dangerous greenhouse gases as they do so.
Environmental groups say they want firms to do much more to develop cups that can be easily recycled or do more to encourage customers to bring their own reusable vessels. But compostable cups are here. It is we the consumer that refuses to pay the premium. If there were a levy placed on to-go cups that was equivalent to the cost of the compostable cups premium, perhaps the big brands would switch over.
The imposition of a nickel tariff on plastic bags has been proven to reduce their use by the billion. Perhaps that same tariff should be imposed on the non-compostable coffee cup.
Nickel…definition: A Canadian five cent piece.
Posted on: 2016-10-07 1:36 PM 
