Why are take-away cups a problem? Most take away hot drinks cups are made of Coffee culture is huge across Greater Manchester

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1 FAC SHEE AKE-AWAY CUPS HO DRINKS 7 MILLION A DAY! IN HE UK, I S ESIMAED WE USE 7 MILLION DISPOSABLE COFFEE CUPS EVERY DAY, HA S 2.5 BILLION EVERY YEAR! Why are take-away cups a problem? Most take away hot drinks cups are made of Coffee culture is huge across Greater Manchester cardboard these days, which is great, but so that and we re all busier than ever. Put those two facts they don t absorb the liquid from your coffee (or tea) together, and what do you get - 7 million disposable they usually have a lining on the inside, which is coffee cups used once and thrown away every single mostly made from plastic. his is also the case for day in the UK alone. hat s 2.5 billion every year! many disposable cups for cold drinks too. Coffee cup recycling As there are different types of materials in your disposable cup they aren t widely recycled. It s really difficult to separate the plastic layer from the cardboard, and that means the whole item ends up in the general waste bin. Below are some options that will help you to reduce waste and lower your carbon footprint.

2 Key: A really sustainable choice. Good work! Room for improvement (try & move towards the green choices) but doing good. Not a great choice for the planet, try and move to an amber or green choice soon. What to choose take-away cups CHOICE RAING WHY? HINGS O CONSIDER We sell reusable take away cups and offer a discount to our customers who use them. As a general rule reusable is always a better option than disposable. Buy in some reusable cups to sell, and find ways to encourage your customers to keep using them (see behavioural change section below). We offer reusable take away cups to customers on a deposit return scheme Could you 'rent' reusable cups to your customers on a deposit return scheme? PlasticFreeGM are looking into how we can make reusable schemes easier across the city-region.

3 What to choose take-away cups continued. We stock disposable take away cups that are 100% compostable packaging must state EN13432 standard for compostability he best of the bunch if you re using disposables. Going 100% compostable is great, but there s still a lot of energy and embedded carbon footprint in constantly producing, delivering and disposing of single-use items. If you stock these items it s important that they actually get composted, not thrown in the general waste. Compostable coffee cups can t go in paper and card recycling, because they still have a lining made of PLA (plantbased plastic). Always check with your waste disposal contractor what can be recycled/composted. In Greater Manchester residents cannot put compostable items in their food/garden bin at home. It s difficult to separate the plastic lining from the cardboard cup, so these cannot go into paper/card recycling bins (they will contaminate the recycling). We stock disposable take away cups made from card with a plastic lining (check the box, or ask your supplier) We stock disposable take away cups made from plastic, e.g. expanded polystyrene foam cups here are some specific services now that will collect plastic lined take-away cups and make sure they get recycled, e.g. Simply Cups, but these can be expensive for smaller businesses. Our advice is to move to one of the amber or green options above. his is an option to avoid at all costs. If it ends up in a bin polystyrene is not widely recycled. If it ends up as litter polystyrene, like other plastics, degrades over time into smaller and smaller bits called micro-plastics. hese get into our water systems, wildlife and our bodies, causing untold harm.

4 ake-away cup lids If you re using a disposable take-away hot drinks cup, you ll need a lid to go with it. If we re honest, there aren t any good options out there for this sort of product. Choices like this highlight how important it is to move beyond disposables and shift towards reusable in the longer term. WARNING - PRODUCS AND ERMS O LOOK OU FOR A bit of a warning here and some products and Compostable materials break down by the action terms to be wary of. here are a lot of not very of living organisms too, but if a material is legally good products on the market that use words like described as '100% compostable', green and eco to try and convince you they re achieved EN13432 for compostability, it will break good for the planet. down in around 12 weeks, leaving only organic and has matter behind. Always check with your waste & Warning on 'biodegradable' - here are a recycling contractor that they can accept number of products using the term biodegradable compostable packaging in the food/compost to try and seem like a good option for the bin as some can only take food waste. environment, when this isn t always the case. Biodegradable materials break down by the action Warning on Oxo-degradable plastic - his is a of living organisms (e.g. bacteria) but this can take plastic product that has chemicals added to it that a very long time, and result in toxic chemicals mean it breaks down much more quickly. In theory being released, it just depends on what the this sounds good, but in practice all that s material is made of. Over a long enough timescale, happening is that these products create micro- most plastic particles far more quickly, and release materials could be described as biodegradable. chemicals into the environment along the way., his is because plastic only degrades (becomes smaller and smaller pieces) rather than breaks down at the chemical level to its component parts. It is a very misleading product and should be avoided at all costs.

5 WHA O CHOOSE WHEN I COMES O LIDS CHOICE RAING We stock single-use PLA or CPLA plant-based take away lids where the packaging DOES state EN % compostable WHY? HINGS O CONSIDER his is the best of a bad bunch PLA cannot be recycled like plastic, and must go to an appropriate composting facility in order to biodegrade (break down at a chemical level rather than just become smaller and smaller bits). If PLA goes in the plastic recycling it can cause whole batches of plastic recycling to be rejected. Always check with your waste disposal contractor what can go in your recycling or food/composting bin. One to avoid. he majority of plastic take away cup lids can t be recycled. (because they are already a low-grade product). Instead they end up in the in the general waste bin. We stock single-use plastic take way hot drinks lids (polypropylene or polystyrene) We stock a single-use plastic or plastic-like take away hot drinks lids that claims to be eco, 'reen' or 'biodegradable', but the packaging DOES NO state EN % compostable If the lid becomes litter, it will slowly break down and release micro-plastics that can harm wildlife, soil quality, and human health. If you re still using disposable plastic, it s time to change now. Usually one to avoid. See warning on previous page products and terms to look out for.

6 How to coax your customers towards reusable options? By far the most sustainable thing to do is move towards reusable drink cups. he added bonus is that it will save ONLY 1% RECYCLED LESS HAN 1% OF DISPOSABLE COFFEE CUPS ARE RECYCLED, AND OVER HALF A MILLION CUPS BECOME LIER EVERY DAY IN HE UK! your business money! So, here s some ideas for helping your customers to go reusable. MOVING O REUSABLE OPIONS - HINS AND IPS Make it easier for customers to use a reusable cup by offering to run it through your pot wash, and don t forget to publicise the fact that this service is available. Charge for disposables - research has shown that adding an overt charge on top of the price of the coffee for the use of a disposable cup has more of an impact than offering a discount for customers who bring a reusable cup. It also flips the view of what is normal. hose who bring a reusable cup aren t exceptional (or weird), it s the people who don t have their own reusable cup that need to catch up. Offer a discount to customers who bring their own reusable cup. If you feel that charging extra for the use of disposable cups could alienate your customers, at least make sure you are offering a discount to customers who do bring their own cup, and set it at a rate that makes it attractive if you offer a bigger discount, you might even gain some extra customers! ell people you have made a change If you decide to switch to some of the sustainable behaviours above, put up a sign or tweet about it so that your customers know why you ve made the change. hat way you get the credit for making the eco-choice, and customers will understand that this is part of a positive shift. Remember to tag so we can retweet you.