LONDON, UK – A Liberal Democrat pledge to impose a 5p charge on disposable coffee cups has been blasted as a “knee jerk reaction to the media”. The plan will be included in the party’s manifesto for June’s General Election. It also forms part of a ‘Zero Waste Act’, incorporating a 70% recycling target.
Lady Parminter, the Liberal Democrat’s environment spokeswoman said: “For the Liberal Democrats protecting our environment and tackling climate change is a priority. We can and must act.”
The money raised from the 5p charge would go to charities, similar to the plastic bag charge.
However, Martin Kersh, Foodservice Packaging Association executive director, heavily criticised the Liberal Democrats plans and said that it was hard to understand why coffee cups were considered the next step in tackling climate change when coffee cups account for only 0.1% of total waste.
He said: “Surely policies should be based on well-founded research rather than as a knee jerk response to media? We assume the Lib Dems believe a 5p cup charge will lead to an increase in reusable containers and it would be good to see the Lib Dems’ evidence for this.
We question whether the majority of consumers are willing to carry a reusable cup in their bag and whether they are likely to want to put a used cup back in it. It is agreed that a bag for life if only used a few times is an environmental waste. A reusable cup only used a few times is likely to be an even bigger environmental waste.
“The most likely effect of the 5p charge will be to punish consumers, with the poorer consumer punished disproportionately more; not exactly in keeping with Lib Dem policy.
We have offered to consult the Liberal Democrats on this issue and this offer still stands.
If they were to meet with us again they would learn about a great range of industry initiatives already working hard to find solutions to this issue.”
Kersh added: “It’s all very well imposing a legally mandatory recycling target so long as the party will also address the need for greater investment in the UK’s recycling infrastructure, an issue we highlighted with the Lib Dems when we met with them a year ago.
If legally binding then will Local Authorities be fined for missing targets? Is it fair to punish Local Authorities for deficiencies in waste and recycling infrastructures?”
Philip Chadwick
