Latte levy: KeepCup and the reusable cups changing attitudes towards waste

In the year before MPs proposed the “latte levy” of 25p on disposable coffee cups, profits at KeepCup, the Australian reusable cup brand, doubled. The company sold a quarter of a million of their barista-standard cups in the UK in the run up to Christmas - the biggest three months of sales in its history.

“It’s accelerated an awful lot in the last year with all the attention on the war on waste,” says Chris Baker, the UK managing director of KeepCup.

Yet their success suggests that coffee drinkers’ attitudes towards waste were changing before a report by the Environmental Audit Committee on disposable packaging was published in December.

The report noted that most people in the UK don’t realise that disposable coffee cups can’t be recycled. The paper cups are lined with plastic, which makes them waterproof, but most recycling plants can’t separate the layers to processes them. Once the cups are used they are contaminated and there are no facilities in Europe for contaminated food packaging.

MPs proposed the levy of 25p in response to figures showing 2.5 billion cups are used and thrown away in the UK each year. It was greeted with outrage from some consumers who said that businesses, not coffee drinkers, should have to pay. But small coffee businesses have been at the forefront of changing consumer behaviour. Many independent shops already offer a discount for those who bring their own reusable cup. The makers of reusable cups say it is shops and businesses that are driving a change of attitudes towards waste in the UK - beyond the reach of the Government and the latte levy.

Baker says the growth of KeepCup has been linked to the growth of the specialist coffee industry. KeepCup is the only barista standard reusable cup, which means it comes in the right sizes for espresso, flat white and other standard coffee drinks.

“We have had close ties with the speciality coffee industry, which started in Melbourne,” Baker says. “Sustainability runs at the core of what the industry does, in terms of the coffee they buy and the practices in cafes - they tend to be more avid promoters of reuse.”

KeepCup comes from the founders’ own concerns about packaging and waste. Abigail Forsyth, managing director, started a cafe called Bluebag with her brother Jamie in Melbourne in 1998. Alarmed by how many cups they were throwing away, Abigail and Jamie looked for a reusable alternative and found that there were few alternatives, and even fewer that suited the needs of both the customer and the barista.

Ceramic mugs were heavy, breakable and needed to be heated up before they were filled with coffee. Thermos flasks were bulky and didn’t fit under the coffee machines, meaning the coffee had to be decanted into the cup, destroying the delicate froth, known as crema, on the top of the shot. Both of these options were made of synthetic materials, so they couldn’t be recycled themselves when they needed to be replaced.

In 2009, with help from designers, the Forsyths launched the KeepCup. By 2012 the company had opened a warehouse in the UK. It was important to Abigail that the company should be based where the cups were sold, to shrink the carbon footprint necessary to produce and ship the cups.

The company has sold five million cups to date and can expect to sell many more if MPs go through with their plans for the levy. But KeepCup’s sales figures suggest baristas who encourage people to use reusable cups instead of throwing them away can have a much bigger impact.

In Australia, where there is no levy, reuse rates as high as 30 per cent compared to just 1-2 per cent in the UK. The country has developed a cafe culture that informs consumers of the need to reuse. KeepCup estimates that if all coffee shops could reach a reuse rate of 30 per cent, 750 million disposable cups would be saved from going to landfill.

“The other frustration for me is that we already have a strained recycling service in the UK,” Baker says. “People still struggle to put the right things in their recycling bins outside their home. There’s not consistency, so why are we putting more strain on an industry that’s already struggling?”

Baker advocates for a combination of approaches, informing consumers that coffee cups aren’t recyclable and offering a clear alternative. Much of that will fall to baristas to make reusable cups the norm. “It doesn’t have to be alevy or a discount, it is also about giving people a pat on the back,” he says.

The bigger chains are catching on. Starbucks and Costa offer customers 25p off when they bring their own reusable cup, while Pret A Manger raised its reusable cup discount to 50p for 2018.

Baker sees the move to disposable cups as part of a wider trend to drive awareness of the environmental impact of on-the-go consumption: “I’m hoping it will get people to think about whether they can sit in and have a coffee. That’s what we used to do and in some ways it’s sad that we have become so busy and on the go that this is the case.”

In France, for example, four young founders have created a reusable up for coffee machines in offices. Newcy offers to trade in disposable cups as part of a business’s corporate social responsibility, the collects the reusable cups to be washed.

“The main part of our service is not so much logistics, it’s to try and change attitudes,” says Caroline Bettan, one of the four co-founders. “We develop lots of fun animations, we look at the results of the consumer and if they use their cups twice we give them a golden cup. We try to encourage good behaviour.”

The French Government will ban disposable cups in 2020. Bettan says Newcy has already been contacted by 400 companies in France looking to switch out of disposable cups. “The law is a platform, but we really see clients who want to change not because of the law but because there is a demand,” Bettan says. “Companies really want to change. Soon it will be normal to use reusable cups.”