Myth
Most people believe disposable coffee cups can be recycled or composted.
Reality
The mixture of plastic and paper in the lining makes them difficult to recycle; compostable cups can only be composted in high-heat, industrial composting facilities, not your backyard worm farm.
Myth
Just one cuppa is no big deal.
Reality
Just one takeaway cuppa per day amounts to over 50 kilos of waste per year. 1 in 5 people visit a coffee shop daily and 120 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the US – one fifth the global total. In the UK, 2.5 billion are tossed in the tip annually.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nzl5q
Myth
If you don’t offer takeaway cups, your business will suffer.
Reality
In June 2018, UK-based coffee shop Boston Tea Party completely removed single-use cups from its 30 stores. Takeaway sales dropped by 25%, which they anticipated. What they didn’t expect: staff turnover dropped to zero, saving the business $1.27 million per year in training costs alone.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lucysherriff/2019/01/10/recycle-coffee-cups-reusable/#70b1e2db567b
Myth
Alternatives don’t work. People just want their coffee.
Reality
Shops that offer incentives, like discounts on coffee, see an increase in customers who bring their own cups. Offering in-house mugs and asking customers if they want their drinks “for here or takeaway” increased uptake of reuseables from an average of 18% to 57% during a pilot test.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-09/starbucks-bets-london-airport-can-crack-the-reusable-cup-code
Find more facts and resources for dealing with the problem of sip and tip HERE.
http://www.recyclingadvocates.org/single-use-coffee-cup-reduction/