Good coffee, bad cup: How to curb ocean plastic pollution by switching to refill and reuse solutions

Danes use large quantities of single-use packaging for takeaway food and beverages. One of the most striking examples concerns single-use coffee cups. A survey carried out for Oceana by KantarGallup estimates that Danes use around 130 million single-use cups each year for coffee alone. Single-use cups are one of the top ten items found littered in the Danish environment. They are typically made from plastic or plastic-lined cardboard and on average are used for around 15 minutes, after which they are discarded. Some of them end up polluting the environment, including the ocean. Oceana estimates that around 390,000 single-use coffee cups discarded in Denmark end up directly in the sea. Plastic pollution is a global challenge that affects the health and resilience of our ocean and has wide-ranging consequences for marine ecosystems and the species that live in them. Plastic can last hundreds of years in the marine environment and never fully disappears. Eventually, plastic degrades into microplastics that can work their way into the food chain. At least 50% of all plastic found on European beaches is single-use plastic such as bottles, cups, food containers, and bags for crisps and sweets. If current trends continue, the global production of plastic is expected to increase fourfold by 2050, and the plastic polluting the world's ocean is expected to increase accordingly. Researchers emphasise that the challenges cannot be addressed simply by cleaning up and increasing recycling. To resolve the plastic crisis, both plastic production and consumption must be reduced. The solution lies at the source of the problem: we must "turn off the tap" on the flow of plastic, and drastically reduce both production and consumption, particularly of single-use plastic. In order to move away from products that are used only once and for a brief period of time, we must eliminate unnecessary wrapping and packaging whenever possible, while shifting to reusable solutions such as refillable coffee cups that are far less likely to end up in nature. A survey commissioned by Oceana shows that the Danish population is deeply concerned about the environmental problems posed by plastic. Nine out of 10 Danes agree that single-use plastic should be phased out as much as possible. The survey also shows that Danes are predominantly positive towards measures that would ensure changing from single-use coffee cups and other disposable packaging to reusable alternatives. At the same time, specific legislative measures are being implemented in neighbouring European countries in support of phasing out disposable products and changing to reusable alternatives. Moreover, specific reuse solutions are being developed, such as refillable coffee cup systems, indicating that switching to refillable cups and reusable packaging for takeaway is realistic. However, this requires that these solutions be supported by appropriate regulatory and policy initiatives. Oceana recommends setting a political goal of completely phasing out the use of single-use coffee cups, with an intermediate target of having 50% of all cups on the market be refillable by 2026, and increasing to 80% by 2030. Oceana also recommends adopting specific legislation that supports reducing the use of single-use cups and shifting to multiple-use solutions, including legal requirements for takeaway outlets to offer customers a refillable option for takeaway coffee and banning single-use tableware when food and drinks are consumed ‘on-site’ in cafés and restaurants.