A photo is causing a stir over an increasingly widespread and sometimes controversial coffee cup trend. The photo was taken at a downtown London cafe, but the custom has also been copied in Australia, Canada and the United States.
If you want to understand what’s behind the behavior that has outraged thousands of people, you need to look at the customers. Look closely at what they have on their hands.
Instead of slowly sipping a perfectly brewed flat white, long black or latte from a ceramic cup, customers are sipping coffee from a takeaway cup.
The photo was taken by environmental entrepreneur James Atkins during a recent holiday in the UK.
“I spend a lot of time looking at and thinking about the little actions and things that we all do from an environmental, climate and biodiversity perspective,” he told Yahoo News.
“I saw a bunch of people sitting around drinking coffee out of takeaway cups and I thought that just didn’t make sense.”
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What’s wrong with eating in a restaurant using a disposable coffee cup?
After mulling over the action in his mind and becoming frustrated with the unnecessary waste created by disposable coffee cups, Atkins shared his frustrations on LinkedIn, sparking a heated debate.
He points out that the cafe is doing the right thing and providing ceramic cups, but customers want disposable ones: “Decent cups represent a slower, calmer, more appreciative world, and we feel that’s better for the planet,” he writes.
His LinkedIn post about the incident was seen by more than 5 million cafe patrons, with over 3,000 people responding and leaving hundreds of comments.
About 5 trillion coffee cups are made every year, but less than 1% of them are recycled: Most cups are coated with a plastic lining that’s hard to separate from the paper exterior, so the easiest option is to send them to a landfill, where they’ll take decades to decompose.
While some respondents shared Atkins’ environmental concerns about disposable cups, many tried to justify their actions.
“For me it’s a matter of hygiene. I prefer plastic or paper cups to those that have been washed in the cafe’s dishwasher,” one man confessed.
“I think this is mainly due to the modern ‘drinking on the go’ culture and the convenience of ‘to-go’ cups,” suggested another respondent.
“This is how most people order in America. In fact, many coffee shops only offer disposable cups. If you’re from a country where you still have the experience of ordering a coffee, sitting down and enjoying it, never give it up,” warned another.
Why coffee lovers choose disposable coffee
Many respondents cited disposable cups being cheaper and the rising cost of living affecting London as reasons why London customers are more likely to opt for disposable cups.
In the UK, 25% Value Added Tax (VAT) is added to your bill when you dine in, so an easy way to avoid this is to order in a takeaway cup before sitting down.
“It seems silly and an easy problem for the government to solve,” Atkins said, adding that it was understandable that people would choose takeaways. “You might save 50p or more – if you drink a coffee every day, that could save you hundreds of pounds a year.”
But the trend isn’t unique to the UK, and Atkins points out there are a number of other reasons why customers might dine-in with takeaway cups.
“Some people find that it keeps their coffee hot for longer,” he says. “If you’re a pure coffee lover and you’re just drinking a shot of espresso, you probably don’t care how hot it stays. But if you’re drinking a big, bulky latte with lots of toppings, it might be an issue.”
Hygiene concerns have been a particular concern in the US, where customers don’t trust the dishwashing process, and it’s also common to find old lipstick on ceramic cups.
The psychological reasons why diners choose disposable tableware
Another theory Atkins came up with after examining the responses is that people drink from takeaway cups because they’re always in a hurry.
“That’s a shame, because if you have time to just sit back, enjoy a coffee and relax a little bit, that’s probably pretty good for you,” he said.
“It also tastes better, as paper and plastic can ruin the taste of your coffee.”
While there are some legitimate motivations for wanting to drink from a takeaway cup, Atkins suspects there’s also a psychological reason.
He believes that sitting at a table with a coffee cup makes the drinker look busy and important, as if he or she will have to get up and leave immediately.
“I think some people love to feel and look busy,” he says, especially when they suddenly have to get up and leave for their next business meeting. “They’re kind of strutting down the boulevard with a phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and a bag in the other.”
Atkins is the founder of several environmental organisations, including Planet League and Football for Forests.
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