Protecting our planet
New coffee cup recycling scheme can make a difference
AN accessible alternative to single-use takeaway cups has been launched in Cardiff. People from the Vale or anywhere else will now be able to ‘borrow’ a reusable takeaway cup from a participating café and return it at a later date so that it can be washed and used repeatedly.
Anyone using the Cardiff Refill Return Cup scheme should get a minimum of 15p discount. The pilot scheme will run until the end of March 2025 and is the first-of-its-kind in Wales. To deliver the scheme, FOR Cardiff, with the help of £90,000 funding from the UK government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, has partnered with environmental charity City to Sea. The project builds on schemes already running in Bristol and Bath.
Residents and visitors will be able to easily find locations to pick up and drop off their reusable cup by using a Refill app. You can download the app on https://www.refill.org.uk/. Once you’ve downloaded the app and registered your card details (no charges will be taken) you’ll be able to participate.
When you visit a participating venue, you simply order your coffee, the barista will use the Refill app to scan a QR code on one of the Cardiff Refill Return Cups, and temporary ownership of the cup goes to you.
You will be reminded when and where to return the cup by the Refill app; provided the cup is returned within two weeks, there is NO charge for using the scheme. Once you return the cup, the retailer will scan it back in, wash it, and put it back into circulation to be re-used by another customer – again and again!
An estimated 2.5 billion takeaway coffee cups (30,000 tonnes) are used and thrown away each year in the UK – enough to stretch around the world five and a half times if placed end to end – and 99% of these are currently not recycled. The UK uses a mind-blowing 10,000 coffee cups every two minutes. This idea should help prevent containers from ending up in landfills, rivers, or oceans, thereby protecting wildlife and ecosystems.
The impact of the scheme will be measured and evaluated by the Greenwich Business School at the University of Greenwich and the Cardiff Business School at Cardiff University, in hopes that the data will help to provide a blueprint for future schemes across the UK.
Plastic pollution is still one of the biggest environmental issues we face.
By Brian Mayne
The views expressed by columnists of this newspaper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Glamorgan Star, its employees or its proprietors.
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