Would you pay an additional charge of 25p when buying a drink in a single use cup? That is the question the Scottish Government is asking you to consider in a new consultation.

Many cafes in Orkney allow customers to bring in their own drinking cups to be filled but most people still like to be provided with takeaway cups. According to the Scottish Government an estimated 388 million single-use cups were used in Scotland in 2021-22 creating 5,400 tonnes of waste.

This scheme would be similar to the single use carrier bag one which in which a small charge is levied at the till.

The consultation is open until 14th of November.

Click on this link to take part: Charging for Single-Use Disposable Beverage Cups: Consultation

Proposals:

• a charge of at least 25p should apply to all single-use beverage cups when an individual buys a drink of any kind, including through a loyalty scheme, to maximise coverage and ensure the charge is easily understood;
• the charge will apply regardless of cup material, and therefore would include cups made of biodegradable material or bio-based plastics. While it can be argued that these are more sustainable than traditional plastics, they are still single-use and present their own sustainability challenges including a lack of recycling infrastructure and frequency of littering;
• the charge will not apply when a drink is free, for instance in non-retail settings such as hospitals and care homes;
• that there will be a limited number of exemptions based on purpose or setting, for instance in schools and when a drink is bought from a vending machine;
• retailers should be able to retain reasonable implementation costs from the charge, in line with the approach taken for the single use carrier bags charge; and
• to the extent it is legally deliverable within the competence of the Scottish Parliament, that net proceeds of the charge should be used for environmental or similar purposes.