[Closed] 25p levy on a coffee cup...

I don't think it'll stop people using disposable cups, people seem happy to pay whatever for coffee flavour beverages.

We introduced 10p off if you use your own cup at work - very few people do even though we sold discounted, branded Keepcups. This is in an office where storage of your own cup is easy too.

I use a reusable in the office, but if I'm out I don't carry one with me. I mainly drink-in where I can though, although often this still means a disposable cup.

Well if a 25p levvy doesn't have an effect then fine, the additional revenue will go to build more recycling plants that can recycle these cups - there are only 3 in the county at the moment. So a simple choice - either use a re-usable cup or pay a bit more and fund more recycling facilities.

I think it is a good thing. Recycling has been a scam really, we've all been good citizens and increased our recycling, but we don't have the infrastructure to cope with the tens or hundreds of thousands of tons of waste it produces, most of it gets exported for 'recycling', the reality is it mostly ends up in another countries landfill.

It is right that the costs are borne by those who demand and produce the waste - the consumers.

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I'd like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

Didn't we all think the same thing about carrier bags? Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping. The need the reduce waste is so high it's time we start using reusable cups and water bottles.

I work at a university and the number of those single use cups in bins and left in communal areas is almost unbelievable.

Sadly I drink McDonald's coffe as I drive round a lot and work in places with no kettle. I would love to be able to use my own cup. Peeps who march down the road brandishing a Starbucks cup( horrible coffee) will not probably care about a 25/50p tax and very doubtful the money raised will go to recycling. Just ban non recyclable cups completely. Bring your own or places employ a cupwasher

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I'd like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

Totally agree.

It does seem odd if there is a biodegradable alternative that the first bit of legislation it not to make them mandatory.

I don't think the reusable coffee mug is quite as easy a win as the carrier bag one. Our car by default has bags living in the boot and we've got a couple of those bags that fold into themselves down to the size of a golf ball one of which my wife has living in her handbag and the other goes in my back pocket if going into town or if riding the pannier does the job. Walking around with an empty mug on the off chance is just not as 'fit and forget'. I suppose it should work for the commuter who religiously picks up a coffee on their way in every day or picks one up every day at lunch.

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

And also - is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups?

How about a mandatory extra transaction - buy a cup from a vending machine and then pay for your coffee afterwards. No tokens, cold hard 25p in coins, maybe even no change given.

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

And also - is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups?

You have a big cup and fill it less for a small drink. I use a reusable cup, it's large enough for a typical large drink. I usually drink small or mediums. The benefit is if you order a small or medium in a large cup they usually overfill it and you get near as damn it a large drink - though that just dilutes the espresso shot and flavour more.

And also - is there a hygiene element? people getting bugs spread from others minging cups

In what sense? Hygiene like, "ohh someone else touched the toilet door before I went in there" kind of over-reaction? 😉

Get "keep cups". One in the car, one at work. There is no need really for using disposable / single use items to hold a drink. Kinda sh1ts me. Like having a pack of oranges (or whatever) in a supermarket, that are presented in a polystyrene tray covered in cling film. No need whatsoever.

Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I'd like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.

+1

Happy to pay an extra 25p if i knew it hugely improved recycling. But will it 100% go to that or be used as a stealth tax? Dont trust this government.

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these?

Still it's better than the current situation so I'd fully support (and pay the extra) for biodegradable cups to be mandatory.

As for the 25p levy, I don't think it's going to help much either, at least not with the actual issue, I'm sure the revenue will help someone somewhere...

Going slightly OT regarding litter, I think it's not unreasonable to have snipers positioned to shoot anyone who drops litter or doesn't pick up their dog crap. That would soon sort the problem out.

Back in the real world we could employ litter pickers on commission based on n pence per item and charge it back to the brand in question at n x 2 pence . So if McDonalds wrappers are everywhere we charge McD for every item the litter pickers find. They either have to suck it up or pass the price increase onto customers.

Appreciate this doesn't help with the lack of recycling. I did see in the news that China are no longer accepting plastics for recycling and I did wonder how much actually gets recycled in reality or does it just get dumped.

One thing that helps here in Norway is the main garage brand (ex Statoil and now called Circle K) have a deal where you buy a coffee mug with a lid and you get free coffee from any of their petrol stations for one year. But a new mug each Jan.

I think it's fair - Even recycling uses large amounts of energy and most cups now get sent to incenerators with general rubbish, not separated.

The biodegradable is probably a good thing but the vast majority of paper cups are either put into office, household or street general wast containers so won't have much chance to biodegrade anyway?

The biggest outrage is going to be for a levy on single use plastic bottles where, for carbonated drinks, byo is far less likely to be viable.

This is just a step towards the much needed packaging tax, anything that isn't simple to separate and recycle should be significantly taxed. That way there is an incentive for the packaging industry to work in partnership with the recycling industry, if the product recycling rate doesn't meet expectations then tax it more.

It should well be noted that some of the big local authority recycling plants are in big trouble or shut down, why? Because what we throw is difficult to process.

Coffee is one of life’s pleasures for me, so I tend to sit down and enjoy a good coffee in a proper mug rather than buying it on the go in a disposable cup. But the number of disposable cups thrown away in general is massive and we need to take drastic action.
In the building where I work, there are three small coffee outlets that use only disposable cups to take away despite many people using the seating area. There are no recycling bins. In our office we have a load of mugs that we buy our hot drinks in, and the cafe puts them through the dishwasher for us. That was only after I asked the cafe if we could do that- they don’t actively encourage people to recycle or bring their own mug.

Appreciate this doesn't help with the lack of recycling. I did see in the news that China are no longer accepting plastics for recycling and I did wonder how much actually gets recycled in reality or does it just get dumped

Most gets burnt as RDF

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

Regards biodegradable cups, they use a plant based degradable plastic for the inner coating and lids. We've put them in our compost with no evidence the other end.

Kryton57 - Member
Not much of an outdoor coffee drinker but I'd like them to apply the same rationale to the fast food world. Specifically drive-throughs. I rarely see discarded coffee cups but plenty of burger style rubbish lying about. If they are trying to make the messers pay for the clean up then that would be a good place to start.
+1

Happy to pay an extra 25p if i knew it hugely improved recycling. But will it 100% go to that or be used as a stealth tax? Dont trust this government.

+ 1

Couldn’t have been a Tory decision, they’re too busy lying and making up stories and excuses 😆

But I would like to see fast food drive throughs banned.

I've got one of the re-usable plastic Starbucks cups - they had them at a service station a few years ago & I think only cost 50p, plus you got 25p off your drink if you bought one.

But, while I use it everyday to take a cup of tea with me in the car on the way into work, I have never actually used it when buying a coffee.

The barrier to this for me is that normally deciding to have a coffee is a bit of a snap decision when I am out somewhere. I don't consciously think that in approx. 2 hrs time I might fancy a coffee so will carry around this empty reusable cup on the off-chance that I do in fact want a coffee.

There was a program on a while ago about recycling etc. and they featured a bloke who had developed a recyclable coffee cup, but none of the big chains were remotely interested in taking it up.
I think the onus should be on forcing either the packaging manufacturer's or the coffee sellers to provide recyclable cups.

Ideally, we would all have re-usable cups on us that we could use but I am not sure of the practicality of that for a lot of situations.

How about a mandatory extra transaction - buy a cup from a vending machine and then pay for your coffee afterwards. No tokens, cold hard 25p in coins, maybe even no change given.

And if you've got no change and were going to pay for your coffee by card, you can have your it poured into your outstretched, cupped hands and try to slurp as much as you can before it ends up on the floor.

"The committee has recognised that the huge mountain of disposable coffee cups is effectively unrecylable, and is overwhelming and disrupting the nation's waste disposal systems, ultimately polluting our rivers and seas, and needs urgent action.

According to the internet, the average paper cup weighs 11g and the plastic lid weighs 3g. A ballpark figure for 2.5 billion cups is 35 billion grams, or 35 000 tonnes. In other words, less than one kilo per head of population per year. That's actually a fairly minor amount of garbage if you think about how much the average household generates per week. If you have a hard-copy subscription to a magazine, you are generating much more paper waste per year from that than you are from coffee cups. If you are serious about reducing the amount of waste, put a levy on books and magazines and force people to read them electronically. This is just some politicians posturing, trying to look like they're doing something but actually just getting headlines.

I use a re-usable cup at Waitrose and think they should stop giving away disposable coffee cups - forcing people to bring in reusable.

I have a Costa reusable cup but it is only a medium and most of the time I want a large caramel-latte for my morning dose-up at work. They give a 25p discount for their reusable cups.

Was thinking this morning of getting a generic reusable cup and marking out where a Costa large would come to in it so I can use that.

Will/shouldn't takeaway fizzy drink cups be included in this as well?

As a practical matter, how does that work for drink size? If I order a small coffee but have a big cup?

One that I've seen is that the server pours the coffee into a disposable cup to measure it, then transfers it into your mug and bins the disposable cup.
Enough to make you weep!

I've had one of these for a while now and it collapses down to almost but not quite pocket size

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It's fine to have in your bag but as has been said - unless I know I'm going for a coffee or have my work bag with me then it's left at home/on my desk.

What we need is for someone to start making branded disposable cups that the celebs all start using and being papped with. Once the sheeple all start seeing their favorite vapid look at me celeb wandering about with one they'll jump on the fad

I'm happy to pay more though - they're already bloody extortinate and I resent everyone I buy that's not from a niche artisan non-chain shop so this might actually help me cut down on drinking the stuff

We need manbags to become widespread, then we can carry cups....

Instead of making it a 25p levy, why not make it a 50p deposit on the disposable cup? Even if the buyer discards it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other people happy to scoop them up and return them to the cafe for the refund! The cafe can then recycle responsibly.

Rachel

Nbt and myself went riding around the Peak district on New Years day.
Because I'm on the back of our tandem I'm able to look around. The amount of rubbish (mainly from fast food outlets, plastic bottles, coffee cups, wrappers, crisp packets) was astounding. This was discarded on grass verges, in farmers fields, banks of rivers and in the middle of the road. It's disgusting.

This drinking coffee whilst walking around is a something that has come into fashion over the last 15 or so years. We need to change our behaviour about our consumerism. Education is the key.

Because I'm on the back of our tandem I'm able to look around.

I always assumed you were transfixed on the view of his pert buttocks

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these?

A couple of reasons:
1. Re-use is much better
2. Biodegradeable cups often look like plastic cups, so they get chucked in the plastics bin and contaminate the recycling process.

OP interesting insight and yes agreed, change the law to require the use of bio-degradable cups would seem the better solution.

"Happy to pay the 25p"

Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn't enough.

darrell - Member
One thing that helps here in Norway is the main garage brand (ex Statoil and now called Circle K) have a deal where you buy a coffee mug with a lid and you get free coffee from any of their petrol stations for one year. But a new mug each Jan.

I saw that whilst in Norway a few years back. Great idea!

gastromonkey - Member
Didn't we all think the same thing about carrier bags? Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping.

My Sainsburys Local, I seem to be the only one who brings a bag. The rest ask for a bag or pick up one of the basic reusables under the self checkouts and scan/pay for that, each time. 5 or 10p, they don't care.

Coffee, people are happy to pay stupid prices for a huge container of hot milk and a dash of coffee. 25p makes no difference. Not convinced that will go to paying for recycling facilities, no matter how much they say it will. Plus how are they recycled?

TurnerGuy - Member
I use a re-usable cup at Waitrose and think they should stop giving away disposable coffee cups - forcing people to bring in reusable.

And then you can get free coffee without buying something 😀 , as the only thing stopping you using the machines is having to ask for a stupid coffee cup and prove you've bought something.

Now almost everyone has a reusable bag for shopping.

Really, is that what you think? When was the last time you went into a supermarket or (especially) a small shop?

"Happy to pay the 25p"

Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn't enough.

Exactly. If any levy is to discourage use and change behaviour, it needs to be high enough to make people think. I think a quid would do it.

"Happy to pay the 25p"
Whooosh. Then 25p clearly isn't enough.

Exactly. If any levy is to discourage use and change behaviour, it needs to be high enough to make people think. I think a quid would do it.

You say that and I don't disagree, but a mere 5p has made a marked different to the use of plastic bags.

But I would like to see fast food drive throughs banned.

darrell - Member
One thing that helps here in Norway is the main garage brand (ex Statoil and now called Circle K) have a deal where you buy a coffee mug with a lid and you get free coffee from any of their petrol stations for one year. But a new mug each Jan.

A great idea and when your economy is running a budgetary surplus then governments can do stuff like this as well as massively subsidising EV's like they do in Norway - loads of Teslas's running about in Norway by people who wouldn't normally have a cat in hells chance of being able to afford an £80k car. If we want to give away free coffee it is taking budget away from the NHS, Police and other public services.

But I would like to see fast food drive throughs banned.

Now we've got drive through coffee places. Cars idling pumping out pollution while they queue for coffee in a non-recyclable cup because waiting in a shop is just too long.

If people made more time for coffee they'd sit inside the shop and drink from proper cups.

I use Starbucks regularly, I actually like their coffee. I bought their reusable cup when I found out you got 25p discount on a cup of coffee.
Shortly after the Blue Planet episode where the infant whale died from toxins in the mother’s milk due to ingested plastic. I was talking to the Starbucks staff who asked me why I used the reusable cup and was it because of the Blue Planet episode. After admitting it was for the discount they informed me that they were selling out of the reusable cups on a daily basis due to the Blue Planet effect. I watched the episode from my recordings and couldn’t help but feel guilty and have tried to cut down on plastic usage/waste even making sure that Starbucks reuse the green plastic cup stopper/stirrer too.

Like many I'm sure, I was shocked when the headline came out a year or two ago, saying that the UK only had two specialist recycling plants in the UK that can deal with these "recyclable cups."

2.5 billion of these things going to waste every year in the UK alone! 😯

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36882799

But unlike many I suspect, a cup of coffee from Starbucks and alike is a massive rarity for me, in fact it almost certainly only happens during our Center Parcs annual holiday (they have Costa and Starbucks store at Longleat), which is kind of ironic given how this chain is all about being at one with nature and being eco-friendly etc.

After reading that article, I always sit-in and use a ceramic cup, for those few coffees I have during the week.

Since the above article, I've wondered why regional recycling plants not capable of recycling these cups, cannot store these cups and then periodically send them in bulk to the centres that can deal with them?

Personally, I don't think the 25p levy for a "[s]recyclable[/s] cup" is the answer, potentially that might only be ~5% extra cost on some of the larger variations. If you want the convenience of taking your drink away from the store, you bring your own container. If you don't hand over your own container, whether drinking in or out, you get the additional charge of a standard ceramic... Which I expect is more than 25p.

Well if a 25p levvy doesn't have an effect then fine, the additional revenue will go to build more recycling plants that can recycle these cups

Not fine, no. Re-using a cup is far far better than recycling one.

I try to use a re-usable cup when I remember. I have a metal one, and it stays in offices where I work and gets used often twice a day.

If people made more time for coffee

They wouldn't - they don't have the time. They'd just not drink it and we'd be back to Nescafe at work. Not such a bad thing really.

Perhaps the government should mandate a minimum standard of coffee at work so we can all go there and drink from our desks from a ceramic mug?

Oh and in the US, they don't even have ceramic Starbucks mugs. Every drink goes in a paper cup even if you stay in. WTaF?

Perhaps the government should mandate a minimum standard of coffee at work so we can all go there and drink from our desks from a ceramic mug?

Molgrips for President!

Oh and in the US, they don't even have ceramic Starbucks mugs. Every drink goes in a paper cup even if you stay in. WTaF?

The attitude to waste in the US is staggering. Admittedly, this is an old example, but in my teens I worked on a US summer camp. Every single meal, that's three meals a day for three hundred children and thirty staff, plus mid-morning/afternoon snacks and drinks, for ten weeks, was served using disposable plates and cutlery...

To be fair the main drive through fast food joints moved away from polystyrene packaging to cardboard years ago so easily recycled

25p isn't going to change my habits.

50% of the time I buy a coffee it's unplanned - in town & fancy it - i won;t have a cup. Biodegradable would work.

The other 50% is motorway services - so might work although I often stop and use a proper cup as a break on a longer journey.

Since the above article, I've wondered why regional recycling plants not capable of recycling these cups, cannot store these cups and then periodically send them in bulk to the centres that can deal with them?

the reason is that they are very difficult to separate from other mixed waste, they require specialist equipment to reprocess which in turn means you need a large volume of cups to justify investment. The paper mill in Kendal can take them, they just can't get enough

they can't be stored for long periods as they have organics on them that go off and smell, odour is a massive issue for the recycling industry

Every single meal, that's three meals a day for three hundred children and thirty staff, plus mid-morning/afternoon snacks and drinks, for ten weeks, was served using disposable plates and cutlery...

I've seen this in people's homes whenever there is anyone round.

They levy needs to apply to all paper and plastic cups, whether I get a smoothie or a latte is irrelevant, driving down the numbers of single use cups is as is recycling the ones used

Bit of a leftfield and slightly tongue in cheek - but - it's a drink that arguably 99% of the time isn't needed there and then.

Get up 10 minutes early and have a drink at home, have one in the office / work canteen or in a service station sat down, but do people really need to drink on the go? Course they don't.

Ban all disposable cups and make drinking out of them illegal 😆

As with a lot of other problems [ alchohol sales , plastic bags etc ] the onus is not to solve the problem but to tax the consumer .The issue is not how much the coffee cups are , but how they can be properly processed, or is there another way manufacturers can provide disposable cups .

There are a lot of coffee shops that only give you a disposable cup regardless of whether you want to sit in. It’s ridiculous and I’m pretty sure they just don’t want to employ some to collect and pot wash. Pret A Manger at Manchester airport don’t give you a choice and if you want milk pour it into a tiny little disposable cup rather than straight into the tea or coffee. Mental. don’t even get me started on coffee pods.

Instead of making it a 25p levy, why not make it a 50p deposit on the disposable cup? Even if the buyer discards it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other people happy to scoop them up and return them to the cafe for the refund! The cafe can then recycle responsibly.

Rachel

^ a very good option IMO

I have been ranting about disposable cups for years. IIRC they are waterpoofed by coating them in polyurethane which is what then contaminates the rest of the waste card/paper if they are put into a recycling bin so that little cup then ends up contaminating a whole batch of recycling so it all ends up in landfill or the incinerator.

Everytime that advert with the pretty lady for Al-Qaeda coffee (or whatever it is) comes on I get cross and go on a mini rant about the promotion of people using disposable cups from their own home.

I am so pleased to see how quickly recently the uprising against non-recyclable packaging and single use items has become.

don’t even get me started on coffee pods.

The whole coffee pod industry should be nipped in the bud. There is absolutely no need for such an invention and it is grossly irresponsible.

I think the premise of the plastic bag tax isn't for money raising (it doesn't go into the general pot), alcohol tax is for cash raising although there is a slight behavioural nudge where minimum pricing is introduced

the plastic bag tax has worked, we use less plastic bags because we are tight, some people carry on but the tax can be increased and the number reduces again. The tax should have it's own version of the Laffer curve

The attitude to waste in the US is staggering. Admittedly, this is an old example, but in my teens I worked on a US summer camp. Every single meal, that's three meals a day for three hundred children and thirty staff, plus mid-morning/afternoon snacks and drinks, for ten weeks, was served using disposable plates and cutlery...

At least one large teaching hospital's canteen runs on disposable cutlery

Chopsticks is the obvious solution 🙂

As with a lot of other problems [ alchohol sales , plastic bags etc ] the onus is not to solve the problem but to tax the consumer .The issue is not how much the coffee cups are , but how they can be properly processed, or is there another way manufacturers can provide disposable cups .

No, the issue is not with recycling, it's with reuse. Recycling is not a goal, it's what you do when you cannot re-use. Hence the desire for re-usable cups.

Taxing the consumer can work, it's worked pretty well with plastic bags. Far fewer single use bags being used here in Wales in the main supermarkets.

Instead of making it a 25p levy, why not make it a 50p deposit on the disposable cup? Even if the buyer discards it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other people happy to scoop them up and return them to the cafe for the refund! The cafe can then recycle responsibly.

Genius idea from Rachel. 😀 Might solve the Windsor begging 'problem' as well.

I tried a keepcup which was a bit rubbish and the coffee would cool quicker than a paper cup, now have an uppercup which is double walled plastic and a much better product.
I use a man bag so on the back of this thread I'm going to start using it again as I can't stand litter and waste so really should be using it all the time.

I think the premise of the plastic bag tax isn't for money raising

It's not a tax at all, the government doesn't see or handle any of the money that's raised though the plastic bag charge.

If you don't have time to sit in the cafe and drink your coffee out of a reusable cup then you must be working hard enough to afford the 25p extra.

Biodegradable cups are cheaper than a 25p levy so why not just force coffee shops to use these?

Re-use/your own cup is even better.

20yrs ago in Sweden I was caught out at an event that *everyone* else had brought their own version of a travel mug / folding cup to. Sadly my folding cup only lasted 5 years. I now routinely carry round a small travel mug (which is a pain to find, most are oversize buckets).

Okay… how about doing away with coffee establishments that quip "sorry, we only have take away cups" when you order an espresso. Many customers will be drinking their diddy drink there and then, so don't force disposable cups on them. "Bring your own" doesn't work quite as well for short drinks, unless there is the option to warm the cup quickly first. How about taking a deposit for the first reusable espresso cup, and replacing with a fresh prewarmed one each time, putting the returned cup into the wash system? Refunds on returns needs to make a come back for cups (and bottles) etc as well. Agree with those saying that reusing is MUCH better than recycling.

ooo how is this going to affect the hateful free coffee and waitrose?

While in Cornwall this week I noticed that giant Costa cups are more prevelant in the hedges than McDonalds cups now… "coffee" packing waste IS fast food packaging waste now, not something different.

Andyl - RE Waitrose - they already allow you to use a travel mug, you just show your recipt.

Bring your own" doesn't work quite as well for short drinks, unless there is the option to warm the cup quickly first.

See that thin wiggly thing on those big coffee machines? That's the steam wand, perfect for instantly warming a plastic/glass cup.

I've got some lovely Klean Kanteen insultated tumblers that I much prefer over plastic / cardboard cups. I do still receive some puzzled looks on the faces of staff at coffee shops when I hand it over - I guess they are tyring to figure where to tick a box on it or whatever.

Anyway, I'd have no issue with the levy. The cup vending machine idea suggest on page 1 is a good idea too.

I never use disposable cups and always sit in so no need. The whole packaging issue needs addressing. Ironically i got a rapha mug delivered yesterday, it came in a box and then a bigger box, albeit with few t shirts which could have been used as protective packing, but were not.

I would welcome a tick box on the order stating non gift purchase, therefore minimal packaging.

Instead of making it a 25p levy, why not make it a 50p deposit on the disposable cup? Even if the buyer discards it, I’m sure there will be plenty of other people happy to scoop them up and return them to the cafe for the refund! The cafe can then recycle responsibly.

They do this at Download on the cardboard beer 'glasses'. It works really well, you often see kids wandering around with stacks of cups yards high that they've Wombled. It almost works too well, you've to keep a close eye on your empties and near-empties or some bugger will have away with them.

Andyl - RE Waitrose - they already allow you to use a travel mug, you just show your recipt.

I know you can use a travel mug but what I mean is are they going to pass on the 25p to people getting their free coffee?

I hope they will. It will stop all the people who just care about their free coffee as I bet they wont want to cough up 25p for it.

Used to get people coming into Waitrose cafe with Asda bags full of food, sitting down with their free coffees in the cafe and then pulling out food from asda and eating it. They put a stop to that by only allowing free coffee in the cafe for people buying food.

The Alfa Romeo 156 had no cup holders, although marketed int he compact executive market in the early 2000s (against BMW 3 series etc)

Walter De Silva (the designer), when asked about this 'oversight' said "A real human being does not drink coffee from a paper cup. He stops at a roadside cafe and sips his espresso while gazing at his beautiful Alfa Romeo".

Walter says you're all scum.

Walter de Silva was right in most things.

Though wasn’t it the 155 that had no cup holders? (Actually, I remember it not even having any level surfaces!)

Rachel

its a good idea in principle, badly implemented. Better options would be a cup deposit, incentives for more ecological cups or ban on plastic-lined cups.

On a general litter note I would make litter picking part of community service for shoplifters.

Ban on non recyclable cups is the only workable solution.

Surely they can design a removable plastic liner. The problem isn't so much plastic but the complexity of separating the plastic from cardboard.