We are committed to reducing single-use plastic, which is why we have decided to ban the purchase of disposable coffee cups at Talbot and Lansdowne campuses for one week only between Monday 17 June – Friday 21 June.
Plastic pollution poses a huge threat to both the environment and human health, and disposable coffee cups form a huge part of the problem as they are not widely recycled. Did you know that we use over 100,000 disposable coffee cups on BU campuses each year?
The Sustainability Team and Chartwells have worked hard to create our Returnable Cup Scheme to tackle this problem. Since rolling out the scheme, the use of disposable cups has reduced from 95% to 78%, but there is a long way to go! This disposable cup ban will be an important step towards driving behaviour change within our BU community by nudging people towards making more sustainable choices. If you wish to purchase a hot drink during the ban period, please either:
Bring your own reuseable cup
Drink in our outlets using crockery
Join the returnable cup scheme.
Remember choosing a reusable cup means that you avoid the 30p cup tax that comes with purchasing a disposable cup.
How does the returnable cup scheme work?
Join by purchasing a returnable cup for £3.95 from Chartwells or SUBU outlets across campus (excluding Dylan's)
Keep your cup for as long as you like or return it in exchange for a clean cup. When you hand over your cup for cleaning, you’ll be given a token
Next time you want to purchase a drink, just hand over the token and you will be given a new returnable cup.
This scheme aims to help us to avoid forgetting our reusable cup and avoid carrying around a dirty cup.
If you have any questions about the upcoming ban or the returnable cup scheme, email [email protected]
