LONDON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- A committee of MPs at Westminster Friday called for a 34 U.S. cents latte levy on disposable coffee cups.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee called on the government to introduce the levy after studying a report showing 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away every year.
Committee Chair, Mary Creagh MP, said: "The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year; enough to circle the planet five and a half times. Almost none are recycled and half a million a day are littered."
Creagh added: "The UK's coffee shop market is expanding rapidly, so we need to kick start a revolution in recycling. We're calling for action to reduce the number of single use cups, promote reusable cups over disposable cups and to recycle all coffee cups by 2023."
The Committee called for a "latte levy" on disposable coffee cups, which can be used to improve Britain's recycling bin infrastructure and reprocessing facilities.
The politicians have set a target that all disposable coffee cups should be recycled by 2023. If this target is not achieved, the government should ban disposable coffee cups, they say.
The committee also wants producers to pay more for packaging which is difficult to recycle, and to improve labelling to educate consumers about how best to dispose of their cups.
Although some coffee shops provide discounts for customers who bring their own cup, uptake of these offers is low at only 1 or 2 percent of coffee purchases.
Citing the impact on consumer behavior of a plastic bag charge, which has reduced plastic bag usage by over 83 percent, the committee concluded that consumers are more responsive to a charge than a discount.
"A reusable cup is one of the easiest ways to reduce cup waste but the discounts offered by coffee companies are ineffective. The plastic bag charge is proof that charges are highly effective at reducing packaging waste," said Creagh.
The report said most of the 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups thrown away every year are incinerated, exported or landfilled. Half a million cups are littered every day, which spoils British streets, harms wildlife and pollutes the seas. Coffee cups are difficult to recycle, but not impossible. Industry action has been voluntary, non-committal and slow, added the report.
