A panel that reports to the Scottish Government has recommended a charge for single-use coffee cups to attempt to encourage the use of more reusable cups.
The Expert Panel on Environmental Changing and Other Measures (EPECOM) have suggested that it should be made mandatory for both drinks and disposable cups to be sold separately and to make sure there is a minimum charge on the beverage container. They believe that at least 20p would be needed to change the behaviour of about 49% of the population. Around 200 million single-use disposable beverage cups are consumed each year in Scotland alone, and it is projected that without intervention, it is likely to reach next to 310 million by 2025.
To add to this, the chair of the EPECOM panel, Dame Sue Bruce, has stated that the group has come up with the ideas to help curb the use of disposable cups, saying: "There needs to be a move away from single-use disposable beverage cups completely and not just to an improved model for recycling."
The report has indicated that there needs to be a paradigm shift to help make reusable containers more accessible and convenient - retailers are expected to encourage the idea of reuse at the point of sale, and if possible, that single-use cups should be banned (like in workplaces or in festivals). The attempts at this culture should be planned to take place as a series of trials, across Scotland by the end of 2019.
EPECOM has recommended the businesses are encouraged to place separate pricing to help encourage behaviour change, as an anticipation for the legislative change - they see the use of single-use cups gaining more resistance than that of single-use bags, which was passed earlier in 2014.
