Don’t be a mug!

Compostable takeaway cups may seem like the environmentally friendly choice, but the reality is they are almost as likely to end up in landfill or washed up on our beaches as their plastic counterparts; an issue that has prompted us to team up with local Braunton cafe 51 Degrees North to encourage coffee drinkers to ditch the disposables entirely and turn to reusables in 2022.

So what’s the issue?

Many cafes and take outs have made the switch from plastic coffee cups and lids to compostable ones in recent years, and while this may sound like great news, it’s not quite the solve-all panacea that it may seem. Compostable cups require certain conditions to compost - specific levels of moisture, oxygen and bacteria found in industrial compost facilities - and will not end up with the conditions they need if they go out with our home compost or are thrown in with our other recycling. Despite these containers having been around for a while now, the facilities to properly dispose of them so that they are genuinely composted are still not widely available or accessible. In fact, the whole thing feels a bit like an April Fools prank, with businesses and consumers thinking they are doing the right thing when actually their ‘compostable’ cups are still ending up in landfill and polluting our environment.

Since the start of the pandemic, single use plastic has seen an unwelcome revival, with items such as coffee cups and disposable masks a common sight in hedgerows, along pavements, and on shorelines. 

And what can we do about it?

Braunton café 51 Degrees North is among the local businesses looking to turn this trend back around and encourage positive, sustainable behaviour change by phasing out disposables entirely. Since March, customers have been charged extra for disposable cups, giving them more of an incentive to bring their own or drink in, and giving the café a chance to use up existing stock; from Friday 1 April disposable cups will no longer be offered at all. Instead, customers will have the option to drink in, purchase a reusable cup, or borrow from a small stock of deposit return ‘coffee library’ cups. 

51 Degrees founder Justin Duerden explains why he has taken this decision for his business and for the planet:

“From day one of my business I have always tried to prioritise the environment when making decisions. Even though I chose to use compostable cups and lids from the start, I was aware that the cups will not break down completely unless they are put in the right facilities, and to my current knowledge these are only available far from where we live in North Devon! In my opinion these cups are pretty much the same as any other single use cups, which will end up in our woodlands, hedgerows, rivers, estuaries, oceans and along our coastline.

Since the start of the year we have been working closely with Plastic Free North Devon and have been letting our customers know about our aim to be completely ‘single use plastic free’ from 1st April 2022.

We would love to see you bring in your own reusable cups, or perhaps buy one of our many designs in the shop from our good friends Circular and Co.

From 1st April single use cups will no longer be available at our café and shop in Braunton, but we are aware that not everyone will be able to afford a reusable cup, thus we will also be bringing in a rental scheme.

We have also started roasting our own coffee, which is now available for sale in plastic free pouches.

So far you have all been so supportive and we are aware that for a small independent business it is a risk to take, however the most important thing is that we should all care about our home - this beautiful planet that we live on - and by all of us implementing small changes we can make a massive difference!”

At least two other North Devon cafes, The Porthole in Woolacombe and the Boston Tea Party in Barnstaple, had already ditched the disposables entirely pre-pandemic - asking people to bring their own cups or purchase a reusable cup if they want to take their drinks away with them, and while The Porthole started to offer disposable paper cups as an alternative due to customer demand when they first re-opened post-lockdown, they are now phasing them out again, returning to their reusables only policy. Other examples include Saunton Break Café at Saunton Beach have started to offer the option of returnable tin mugs for takeaway drinks, giving consumers the choice, and Barricane Beach café also offer their hot drinks in returnable mugs. 

Want to know more?

Check out these guides from environmental campaigners City to Sea:

Contactless coffee guide:

https://www.citytosea.org.uk/contactless-coffee/

Takeaway packaging options:

https://www.citytosea.org.uk/takeaway-packaging-options/

And for more ideas on what we can all do to protect our local environment:

https://plasticfreenorthdevon.org/what-you-can-do-1