A 20 cent fee for coffee to go?

Whether during a lunch break or shopping in the city, the "Coffee to go" has been enjoying increasing popularity for several years now. Around six and a half billion paper cups and plastic lids end up in waste every year, a disaster for the environment. The German Environmental Aid (DUH) has now launched a campaign to stop the disposable trend. Your suggestion: a tax of 20 cents for each cup. This is to force the big coffee house chains to offer alternatives such as reusable cups.

The disposable trend of coffee to go cups, which has been increasing for years, wastes valuable resources and pollutes both the environment and the climate. Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) presents solutions that help to reduce the high consumption of disposable coffee cups with their "Becherheld - Mehrweg to go" campaign launched today. At the same time, the campaign is aimed at consumers to make them aware of the environmental impact of coffee to go mugs and to win over the use of environmentally friendly multi-use alternatives. 

20 cents per coffee mug to protect the environment? Image: Ivan Kruk - fotolia

"Coffee to go mugs are a true curse for the environment. In Germany, 2.8 billion of them are consumed per year. It requires 64,000 tonnes of wood, 1.5 billion liters of water, 11,000 tonnes of plastic and an amount of energy to power a small town for a year. We can no longer ignore these problems, "says DUH's Managing Director Jürgen Resch. 

The one-way trend can be stopped in the opinion of the DUH, if the previously offered free of charge disposable products are more expensive. A tax of 20 cents would be the solution. The environmental and consumer protection organization also wants to attract the big coffeehouse chains to offer reusable cup systems for serving coffee. Also, the possibility to have self-brought and closed reusable cups refilled in cafes, promoted stronger and thus made known. You can enjoy a coffee without waste on the way.

"Berlin has a cup problem that does not only harm the environment, but also the image of the capital. The Irish levy on plastic bags has proven that consumers respond when they have to pay for disposable items. A donation on coffee to go cups is long overdue, in order to master the problem ", explains the DUH leader for circular economy Thomas Fischer. According to a representative survey by the research institute TNS Emnid on behalf of the DUH, 75 percent of Berliners are in favor of such a consumption tax on disposable cups. The fact that this can also be implemented at the state level without any problems or concerns is demonstrated by a report prepared by the law firm Geulen & Klinger on behalf of the DUH.

"Every year, 170 million coffee to go cups are produced in Berlin, which are responsible for 2,400 tonnes of waste. Particularly annoying are the many carelessly thrown away cups that spill the environment. We support the DUH campaign, because it makes it clear that there are alternatives to the disposable cups, which are supposed to be indispensable, "says Reinhard Dalchow, Chairman of the Foundation Nature Conservation Berlin (SNB), which funds the DUH project with funds from the Trenntstadt Berlin funding fund.

Entrepreneurs like Christiane Müller do not convince the arguments. A compulsory levy would not change anything. "Innovation is not coercion but conviction", so the argument of the coffee house operator. "We have been offering reusable alternatives for several months. More and more customers are convinced by the concept. That's what customers do voluntarily. " Stefanie Heckel from the German Hotel and Restaurant Association Dehoga also said: "We do not think anything of a new compulsory levy." There are no concrete plans from the political side either. A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry for the Environment announced that such a "coffee mug delivery is not planned". Because the implementation "was probably more expensive than the 20 cents levy". (Sb)