This is shocking: figures released by the government show Britain discards around 2.5 BILLION coffee cups every single year -- worse still less than 1% end up getting recycled.
This waste pollutes our oceans and fills up landfills, endangering wildlife and threatening the health of our planet.
MPs have put forward serious plans to end the waste - a 25p charge on disposable cups, so customers bring their own. But big coffee chains are pushing back. Will you take two minutes to sign the petition backing Environment Minister Michael Gove to end this landfill nightmare?
Chancellor Philip Hammond has already said he wants the UK to “become a world leader in tackling the scourge of plastic, littering our planet and our oceans” in last year’s budget. But coffee chain lobbyists are worried that protecting our environment will damage their profits.
Waste from cups is all over the news, with the support of an influential group of MPs. Chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is saying "The UK has woken up and smelled the coffee cup nightmare”. A huge petition would prove that the public are ahead of the polluters and add to growing pressure on Michael Gove to act.
Disposable cups are almost impossible to recycle because they have plastic linings to make them watertight, while the paper shell is usually contaminated by the coffee or tea. Let’s start the reusable-cup revolution - please take a minute to sign the petition for a waste-free future.
SumOfUs members like you are already standing up to big corporations’ polluting ways. Last year over 66,000 of us came together to help force Coca-Cola to drop its opposition to bottle deposit schemes. And right now over 260,000 of us worldwide are calling on McDonald’s to ditch plastic straws.
Together we can end this polluting throwaway culture. For good.
More information
'Latte levy' of 25p urged by MPs in bid to cut cup waste
BBC. 5 January 2018.
BBC. 5 January 2018.
Environment Secretary pledges action on ocean plastics
Gov.uk. 21 July 2017.
Gov.uk. 21 July 2017.
MPs call for 25p ‘latte levy’ to combat UK disposable cup waste
FT. 5 January 2018.
FT. 5 January 2018.
Introduce a 25p Latte Levy
Environmental Audit Committee. 5 January 2018.
Environmental Audit Committee. 5 January 2018.