Coffee cups could face new tax based on 'plastic bag model'

A new tax could be added to takeaway coffee cups to stop millions of them being thrown away, an minister has suggested.

Environment minister Rory Stewart admitted it was a “huge problem” days after it emerged that less than one in 400 coffee cups sold by high street chains are recycled each year.

He said one possible solution was to add a charge similarly used for plastic bags which he said had been a success.

Labour MP Rob Marris asked Mr Stewart in the Commons for the Government to intervene in the “wretched number” of plastic-lined paper takeaway coffee cups that hardly ever get recycled.

Mr Stewart replied: “I absolutely agree. It's a huge problem and there are tens of millions of these things being produced and thrown away.

"As you have pointed out, many of these things cannot be recycled either by the way they're disposed or because of the composition of the cup.

"Having tackled plastic bags, which I hope everybody in the House would agree the plastic bag tax has been a success, coffee cups seem to be a very good thing to look at next."

Speaking outside the Commons, Mr Marris said he was pleased with the response but added he didn’t think a 5p or 10p tax for coffee cups would completely solve the problem.

He said: “I am pleased with the response from the minister

"I hope the Government will make this a priority in the near future because I suspect a lot of consumers are inadvertently being misled.

“My initial reaction is charging 5p or 10p for the cup will not work - it will not encourage people to take their own cups in if a coffee goes up from £1.90 to £1.95.