By Rebecca Hannant
An environmental group in Hornsea has teamed up with several local cafes and takeaways in a new initiative to encourage people to ditch single-use cups.
As part of the Plastic Free Hornsea scheme, 11 businesses across the town and surrounding areas are offering discounts to those who provide their own reusable cups.
Plastic Free Hornsea says that, although takeaway cups might be manufactured using environmentally friendly materials, they often end up in landfill, or are littered in parks, beaches and other public spaces. The aim of the scheme is to encourage people to make alternative choices, meaning fewer cups and lids are needed, which has a better impact on the environment.
A Hornsea Plastic Free spokesman said: “We were inspired to do it because we saw that some of the big chains were doing it. We know that the Hornsea Hub was already doing it. There are so many things that you pick up when you’re out collecting rubbish, and we thought if only we could stop it before it hits the ground, but there isn’t much that can be done there.
“Imagine there is a cup sitting on the wall by the sea that somebody’s had a coffee out of, you sit there, and you look at it and you think, well, if I don’t move it, that’s going to blow into the sea. What if they didn’t have it in the first place? So, the idea was to try to encourage people to bring their own reusable cups to businesses.”
So far, 11 businesses have signed up to the scheme including the Old Post Office and Tearooms in Mappleton, Cafe Eden, Our Recipe, Mondo del Caffe/Five Bites, Bemora, Floral Hall, the Hornsea Hub, Chip ‘n’ Gails, Lily’s Fish and Chips, Peaky Grinders and the Food Shop. Each business will offer their own discounts.
Becky and Dale Lumb of the Peaky Grinders coffee van said: “We think it’s a fantastic idea and will help reduce the waste in our landfill and look after nature at the same time. Hopefully this will encourage others to follow suit.
“We also wanted to help our wonderful customers for helping to promote this, so we are offering 20p discount off the drink of their choice to everyone who brings their own cup.”
Meanwhile, several businesses say that, alongside the scheme, they have already implemented several initiatives to reduce waste in other areas.
Rachel Crawford at Café Eden said: “We are happy to help in any way we can. We are already plastic free in the cafe for our takeaway containers. So, when we were approached about offering a discount for reusing cups, I thought it was a good idea. We all can’t do a lot, but a lot can do a little, and any little bit can help.”
Melanie Rhodes, co-owner of the Old Post Office and Tearooms, said: “We offer 10p off for anyone who brings their own reusable cup. We offer the same with eggs – if the customer brings their egg box back, they also get 10p off the next purchase.
“We are trying to be friendly to the environment and more thoughtful about the impact on wildlife, and over the past year we have aimed to replace all single-use plastics with compostable/reusable and recyclable alternatives, i.e. cardboard takeaway boxes, wooden ice cream spoons, glass sweet jar, etc.”
The spokesman for Plastic Free Hornsea added: “Those who joined us were excited by it and really pleased to be able to join in. So, after coming up with the idea, we thought that we needed to promote it with stickers.”
As part of the scheme, Plastic Free Hornsea also teamed up with Hornsea School and Language College to launch a competition to design a logo that businesses can place on their windows to advertise that they are part of the scheme.
The competition was won by year 10 student Jack Johnson. His design has now been made into stickers which have been placed in the windows of all the businesses offering the discounts.
Although the scheme is still in its early stages, Plastic Free Hornsea hopes it will go on to make a difference and reduce the number of cups and lids going to waste.
They added: “At the end of the day it’s a drop in the ocean, but you need have a lot of drops in the ocean to make a difference.
“We will need to do other things, but they are all part of education – we are letting people understand that there are consequences to everything. We want to help people alter their mindsets, because there are people who must go and get a takeaway coffee or tea every single day, and every single day they get a new plastic cup.
“When they dispose of them, some of them end up in landfill. So, if you take your own cup every day you’ve saved more than 300 cups a year – it all adds up.”