Bristol environmental charity City to Sea has designed and launched a new returnable coffee cup to help fight pollution and carbon emissions. They say they want to change how Bristolians enjoy coffee and tea in the city.
Customers will borrow and return the reusable cup from participating coffee shops around Bristol. George Clark, project manager at City to Sea, told the BBC: “We want this to become the new normal in Bristol.”
The project was launched at Future Leap Café in Bishopston. People can pick up one of the reusable cups and get a free coffee. They can then return it to coffee shops in the scheme through the Refill app, which directs people to places they can eat, drink and shop to reduce plastic.
Head of development Jane Martin said: “We want this scheme to take single-use cups out of the system in Bristol. This is an exciting project because we all love Bristol’s green spaces, but they are blighted by single-use cups. People should do this because we have a responsibility to reach net zero and reduce greenhouse gases and each less cup that is used helps cut carbon emissions and it will help make sure Bristol is the green lovely city it should be.”
Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said: “A year ago, I set City to Sea the challenge of making sure that any solution to plastic pollution is accessible to the whole city and they’re rising to this challenge. This is a one city approach to help make sure that the places we love can stay litter free.”
Ecosurety, a Bristol-based firm specialising in eco packaging, funded the design. City to Sea estimates the scheme could save 46,000 single-use cups a week, adding up to almost 2.5 million a year, if the cup was reused by one in ten residents a week.
Customers will be able to return the 7,000 reusable cups, using the app, to the 11 cafes currently taking part, including Brewnel’s Coffee Shop at St Michael’s Hospital and the University of the West of England. It’s hoped that the pilot will have as many as 30 participating cafes by the end of October.
