People across Scotland are being asked their views on the potential introduction of a minimum charge on single-use cups. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on a possible 25p charge to disposable cups of any material, in a bid to tackle waste and encourage responsible consumption. Here, Mark Hall, waste expert and co-founder of BusinessWaste.co.uk, answers Packaging Scotland’s questions about whether such a move could work, potential alternatives, and how to use funds generated from this kind of scheme to deliver meaningful change.
Q) How significant is the issue of single-use disposable cups?
A) Close to 400 million single-use cups are used in Scotland every year, which are then disposed of and often end up in landfill. That’s about 5,400 tonnes of waste, which is a similar weight to the Eiffel Tower. In the UK in total it’s estimated 2.5 billion disposable cups are used annually, creating 30,000 tonnes of waste.
Minimising and eliminating single-use cups could significantly reduce the volume of waste sent to landfills, save energy and resources, and have a positive environmental impact.
Q) What are some of the biggest challenges around getting consumers/retailers to change their behaviours?
A) For retailers, there’s the challenge of managing customer expectations and educating them on the environmental impact of single-use plastics. Retailers must invest in alternatives, such as offering reusable cups or incentivising sustainable practices. This involves logistical changes, potentially increasing operational costs.
Behavioural change takes time, and both consumers and retailers need clear incentives, such as cost savings through reusables or rewards programmes, to encourage long-term shifts away from single-use plastics.
However, my main concern is that the charge attributed to single-use cups is not going to be high enough to create a change in consumer behaviour. Of course, some will feel discouraged to buy them initially, but in the long term, 25p won’t be enough to create a lasting change.
Q) Why do you think the proposed 25p charge won’t have the desired impact? What alternative would you suggest?
A) The main reason I believe that is because incremental price increases rarely create a drastic change in consumer behaviour.
When the plastic bag charges were introduced in supermarkets it made a change temporarily, after that people continued to buy them like they used to. Now in some supermarkets the plastic bags cost 60p, and only with a slightly more uncomfortable price attitudes are starting to shift.
That’s why I believe that if they want to make a lasting change, the initial charge needs to be a bit more significant. I think even a start of 60p would have a bigger impact than 25p, although my suggestion would be to charge £1.
Q) Are there any equivalent schemes in operation?
A) In Bristol, a refill/returnable disposable cup scheme was introduced in 2022 to prevent 250,000 single-use cups going to landfill. Killarney in Ireland introduced a €2 deposit for reusable cups across the entire town in 2023 after getting tired of the 23,000 disposable cups it sold weekly littering streets and the national park.
Earlier than that in 2016, the German city of Freiburg launched the FreiburgCup scheme to phase out single-use cups. Customers in cafes and coffee shops pay a €1 deposit, which they return to get the euro back. The cups are washed and reused. More than 100 cafes joined at the start and the scheme succeeded in reducing litter across the city and raising awareness about the environmental damage of disposable cups.
Q) How would you like to see any revenue generated from this sort of scheme spent?
A) Revenue from a reusable cup deposit scheme could be used to invest in further positive environmental changes for coffee shops and cafes. It could simply be switching to LED lights or installing solar panels (where appropriate). Alternatively, it could go towards other carbon offsetting activities such as planting trees and boosting green areas in towns and cities.
