91000 disposable cups are discarded every hour!

According to Greenpeace estimates, Japan's nine major coffee chains provided consumers with about 370 million disposable cups in 2020 alone.

The environmental group said its findings were based on surveys of Starbucks, Tully's Coffee, Pronto, Doutor, Caffe Veloce, Excelsior Caffe, Ueshima Coffee House, Cafe de Crie and Komeda in Japan. At the same time, the environmental group stressed the urgency of taking action to deal with disposable waste.

Greenpeace estimates that the Starbucks coffee chain, which has more than 1500 stores in Japan, offered 232 million disposable cups to consumers in 2020, followed by Tully's Coffee, which offered 72.5 million disposable cups, followed by Pronto, which offered 35.3 million disposable cups.

It is estimated that about 91000 disposable cups are discarded in Japan every hour, according to a report provided by the environmental group.

Most of these discarded disposable cups were not properly disposed of, the report said. Most of these discarded disposable cups are burned, which may be worse, such as flowing into an environment where it should not have occurred. Therefore, there is an urgent need for cafes and relevant government departments to take joint action to end the proliferation of disposable cups and transition to the slogan "reduce, reuse and refill".

Coffee shop culture has developed and flourished not only in Japan, but also in the entire East Asian coffee circle. In July 2022, environmental groups stressed that Hong Kong residents throw away 400 million disposable coffee cups a year. The findings are based on a survey of more than 1000 consumers, of whom 37 per cent regularly drank takeaway coffee and only 3 per cent used reusable cups in the store.

Japan has a highly developed coffee shop culture. According to the data given by the World Coffee Portal, the Japanese coffee market has more than 8000 coffee brands.

Especially after the relaxation of trade restrictions on the COVID-19 epidemic, take-away coffee has become a product of the daily operation of more and more coffee chains. It is urgent to find a solution to the problem of waste of disposable cups.

In March 2022, Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain, said it would no longer offer disposable coffee cups in its more than 35000 stores. Starbucks has also said that by 2023, consumers will be able to use reusable cups in about 17000 of its stores in the US and Canada, and has tried similar measures in stores in the UK, France and Germany.

Countries around the world are also taking measures, some even through legislation to reduce the use of take-away coffee cups.

In February 2021, South Korea announced that it would require coffee chains with 100 or more stores to charge deposits for consumers who use disposable appliances, including coffee cups, plastic straws and blenders. In April 2022, South Korea expanded the scope of application of the plastic ban and strengthened its implementation, and more than 38000 restaurants in South Korea implemented a "disposable cup deposit system."

Also in April 2022, the President of Ireland signed the Circular economy and Miscellaneous provisions Act 2022 (Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022), which is expected to enter into force before the end of the year. This means that cafes or restaurants in Ireland prohibit the provision of disposable cups for diners and charge an extra 0.2 euros for take-away coffee cups.

Photo Source: Internet

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