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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
British MPs waging a war on plastic are demanding a “latte levy”, to try to contain the growing environmental catastrophe caused by millions of latte sipping city dwellers discarding their coffee cups after a single use.
‘Latte levy’ of 25p urged by MPs in bid to cut cup waste
By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst
5 January 2018
MPs are calling for a 25p “latte levy” on disposable coffee cups – and a total ban unless recycling improves.
A report by the Environmental Audit Committee says the tax should be used to improve the UK’s recycling and reprocessing facilities.
The MPs say throwaway cups should be prohibited altogether by 2023 if they are not all being recycled.
In response, Starbucks said it would try out a 5p cup charge in 20 to 25 central London outlets.
“We will begin the trial in February and initially it will last for three months,” the firm said, adding that it continued to offer a 25p discount to customers who brought their own reusable cups.
The government agrees plastic waste is a problem and will seek evidence on a tax on single-use plastics.
‘Revolution’ needed
The committee’s chair, Mary Creagh MP, said: “The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year – that’s enough to circle the planet five and a half times.
“Almost none are recycled and half a million a day are littered. Coffee cup producers and distributors have not taken action to rectify this and government has sat on its hands.
“The UK’s coffee shop market is expanding rapidly, so we need to kick start a revolution in recycling.”
…
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42564948
Concerns about recycling and waste disposal have risen in Europe, since China banned imports of foreign waste back in October. Waste and recycling is a sensitive issue in Britain, substantial quantities of waste which is supposed to be recycled seems to end up in landfill or incinerators.
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The heading photo looks suspiciously like a set up. It shows cans etc in too neat an arrangement.
Either way, individuals should take responsibility, if no bins are available, by taking the cups etc with them until they can be disposed of sensibly.
I’m all for cutting down on unnecessary packaging and preference being given to wood and paper products for cups and bags, but find myself bemused by the idea that having more bins to sort different types of rubbish into is going to make much difference based on observing our local authority’s waste practices. We have a small green bin for food waste and separate bins for plastic and paper waste. There is a separate bag for collection of general rubbish.
Unfortunately when the waste collection is made the food waste and paper/tins plastic get chucked into the same collection trolley and then crunched up in the bin lorry. I checked with neighbours and they all confirm this happens with their rubbish.
Perhaps it would be simpler if we just got the rubbish processed in proper recycling centres, or wait a few centuries until we can recover waste at the molecular level in recycling centres of the future.
It’s a manufactured, contrived ‘crisis’ that isn’t a crisis at all. It does however give MP’s a chance to burnish their green credentials, raise taxes and of course interfere a bit more in our lives. All they need to do is offer a legislation-backed requirement for the best 100% recyclable coffee cup on the market to be used across the UK coffee shop industry and the private sector will solve the problem less time than it takes to boil a kettle.
Politicians are always on a mission in search of a mission.
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” -Groucho Marx
That Groucho quote should be over the entrance of every parliament.
And at the head of every tax demand.
Auto
The problem is that most “disposable” coffee cups are paper-plastic laminates and to recycle it is necessary to separate the two materials.This is not easily done, in fact throwing a paper cup with a film of plastic into a waste paper bin could render the entire contents of the bin unusable in the paper recycling process. Papermakers reject recycled waste which maybe contaminated with plastic.
The great British public seem unable to walk anywhere without the obligatory cup of coffee clutched in its hand so in recent years the number of discarded cups is measured in billions.
“The great British public seem unable to walk anywhere without the obligatory cup of coffee clutched in its hand”
So it’s a fad. Like so many things in our lives. Monkey see, monkey do.
As I suggested above, it has to be made unfashionable.
Much ado about nothing. Maybe if these politicians could recycle all the hot air they spew they’d have something.
This whole subject is a great example of how money wasted on chasing the CO2 boogeyman steals money that could be used to address real pollution.
A solution might be to serve cold coffee. Saves the energy going into making hot water/sarc
By the way, can anybody estimate how much energy is going into the production of a single cup? My guess is that it is about the same as is needed for making hot water.
Historically in the UK taxes are not raised for specific purposes but are put into the “pot” and used as the Government sees fit. That is the reason why Road Tax was renamed Vehicle Excise Duty, car owners complained about the state of roads and how little of taxes raised on motoring were used in the up keep of the highways the government replied it isn’t a tax raised to maintain the highway it is a levy so you can use the highway, replacing tolls paid elsewhere in the world.
I cannot see this levy being used for any specific purpose.
for those interested, I noticed the name cleopatras kiosk in the background of the photo used to illustrate the article.
it has a wonderful history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra%27s_Kiosk
my guess is that the photo is genuine. some litter emanates from the kiosk and some from other sources but when people see they cant put it in the bin, with perhaps no other in sight, then they drop it there, knowing it will be collected.
tony
climatereason
Notable lack of rubbish.
climate,
I know the kiosk, too.
But the ‘rubbish’ in front of the bin does look a bit stages – clean; no shadow; almost (not quite) only water bottles.
Only my impression.
Doubtless other impressions are available.
Auto
you may be right but I live in a holiday area where the number of visitors often overwhelm at times the capacity of the council to clear the bins. if a bin is full then people put their rubbish next to it. in our case the seagulls then scatter it all over the place
in that location next to the thames, I can well imagine the photographer kicked the rubbish into a neater pile but the variety of it suggests that it was dropped randomly next to a bin that people could not put their rubbish inside..
tonyb
The last time I was in Britain (about 10 years ago), I walked into a coffee shop in a nice neighborhood in London, ordered a cup of black coffee, and watched in horror as the barista dumped a spoonful of Nescafe powdered coffee into the cup and filled it with hot water. I dumped as much milk and sugar as I could find into that thing and chugged it because I needed the caffeine. I switched to tea for the rest of the trip.
If they are willing to accept powdered coffee, they should be taxed to buy the swill.
Walter
These days you can’t walk down any street in Britain without falling over coffee shops serving all types of fresh coffee. I would say Starbucks serves the worst coffee. Best to go for the local independent coffee shops.
It is said that one of the reasons that Londoners voted overwhelmingly to remain the EU is that they didn’t want to lose the many thousands of European baristas.
Tonyb
China stops taking UK plastic waste for ‘recycling’ after world becomes concerned about amount of plastic waste ending up in oceans. Hmmmmmmmmmmm………….
Yes that’s what I was thinking
This cup tax is not enough! We MUST Tax every dump taken by every human. Just think of all the paper we are flushing down the crapper. And if that isn’t a horrible-enough thought for you … just think of all those FAT Americans who must take multiple dumps per day! We need a dump tax … because humans are “parasites” on the planet who are killing Gaia with their exploitation of her/shims Resources. /sarc. off.
And what is sad … is that there were numerous eco-leftist Global Warmists who cheered my comments till they hit the /sarc. tag. They were likely spittling their verbal support for a human waste TAX. And yet … they write FAKE books about FAKE interviews with people who (reportedly) question MY President’s sanity. I think we know who the mentally unstable are among the population.
“Just think of all the paper we are flushing down the crapper. ”
Not if you know how to use the 3 seashells.
Kenji
As a query – who is your President?
That nice VV Putin – and his handy denials of genocide?
The gent who has survived another [obviously incompetent] coup attempt in Equatorial guinea – Nguema?
The outgoing upright and utterly faithful, non-partisan and honest democrat in South Africa – the delightful Zuma?
There are other Presidents available.
Auto
Aware that we in the UK might get a Presidential Commissar after the next (last?) election, with re-education camps, punishment brigades for self-employed business-folk, and a general collapse of the public services.
Of course… THAT’S the way to handle littering… taxation of the thing being littered.
Their desire to keep their hand in out pockets and on our wallets is SO transparent.
If people are so lazy as to drop a cup right next to a bin (and maybe the politician-filth should organise better bin-emptying?) then I doubt an extra cup-tax will stop them.
It might even make it worse – “I’m paying extra so I CAN do this!”
However – I do somewhat like the idea of a small discount for bringing in a reusable “travel mug” type thing… but then… will they raise prices to cover the discount?
Will it just be yet another excuse to charge more?
I hate being an older adult (50+) – after decades of life I now look at everything with cynical eyes and a knowledge of human nature (hint: I damn well STINKS). (and my views are most often correct, sadly)
When I was a lot younger, the world was viewed with eager and curious eyes.
I don’t understand this 25 year plan to reduce plastic pollution. If Theresa May can abolish microbeads overnight, why can’t she force ready meal manufacturers to return to using recyclable foil and card containers and putting fruit and veg in paper bags? Sadly, I think it’s a missed opportunity.