We were pleased to see the analysis of the consultation on introducing a charge on single-use beverage cups published on 12 June 2025, but disappointed that there was not greater consensus on the pressing need for action to tackle the problem.
Today we attended a meeting of the Single-Use Cup Advisory Group chaired by the Scottish Government and attended by charities, businesses and other stakeholders and it is clear that there is unlikely to be progress with the delivery of a charge in the short-term.
We will be reflecting on what happens next, including how we can encourage practical action, but in the meantime, our Senior Campaigns Officer Emma Glencross highlights some of the issues with single-use coffee cups and provides insight on what we need to do better in Scotland.
I have been involved with Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Cup Movement® for a few years now, working on Cup Movement in the Highlands to encourage the use of returnable cups , increasing recycling of single-use cups in Glasgow and Dundee through the #TakeItBack campaign and supporting Reposit and Hubbub on the returnable Borrow Cup in Glasgow. Soon, it will be Edinburgh’s turn for a much needed campaign on cup recycling.
Cup Movement® aims to transform our relationship with single-use cups by highlighting the options around reuse, recycling and reducing consumption and waste of single-use cups Recent research* estimates that over 388 million single use cups are used in Scotland each year - all of which have the potential to be littered. This is a significant increase from our previous estimate of 200 million cups. Unfortunately, the estimate of 4% of these cups being recycled does not seem to have increased.
Looking into sustainable options to satisfy my coffee drinking habit has given me a lot to think about. Being in the Campaigns and Social Innovations Team, behaviour change is something we talk about often – how can we make an impact and reduce consumption of single-use, as well as developing opportunities and highlighting options for cup reuse and recycling?
To take on any new behaviours, people need to be exposed to an idea multiple times. Ideally, any change needs to be easy and preferably have a benefit. A small charge on single-use cups could provide an important incentive for customers to make the move away from single-use cups. But a key issue in behaviour change, and one that definitely applies to me, is that I also need to understand why a change is needed in the first place. Annoyingly, I can be told about something so many times, but I often need to experience something before I actually make a change.
I was looking into how people dispose of cups in Edinburgh recently and was amazed to and was amazed to see one single-use cup a minute being put in the bin - with half of them going in the wrong bin contaminating recycling. It is clear that people don't know which bin to use even when trying to do the right thing, and they aren't aware that by trying to do the right thing they often aren't.
We need to do more to help make it easy for people to do the right thing.
Combine the confusion witnessed with the sheer number of cups heading out the door each minute in the local takeaway cafes and it started to turn the idea of 388 million cups being used each year in Scotland into a picture in my mind of a very large pile of cups.
I had a light-bulb moment of self-reflection recently when I went into a small local café. I had decided I didn’t have much time so would get a takeaway coffee but I had forgotten my reusable cup. I asked if the café was part of a local returnable cup scheme, but they weren’t. The barista asked if I still wanted takeaway and I responded, “yes”. It was not until I had received my drink and walked out of the cosy, coffee fuelled café that I started to question why I said yes to takeaway. It meant I was drinking the coffee while walking along the street amidst all the city distractions. I had ordered a flat white - quite a short coffee. If I had decided to drink it in the café, it would have been made in a ceramic cup, warm from sitting on the coffee machine. I would have sat in the cosy café, been able to see the crema on the top of the coffee and smell the aroma - and really appreciate both the coffee and the tiny break in a busy day. Realistically, it would have taken around 5 minutes to drink the coffee. Was I really that short on time? … or could I have taken those few extra minutes to enjoy the coffee, take a quick moment for myself and save the waste. The single-use cup ended up in general waste as there was not a cup recycling bin nearby and single-use cups cannot be recycled through mixed-recycling bins (they have to be collected separately for recycling).
The fact that I made the choice for a single-use cup really struck me. Since that day, I have not purchased a drink in a single-use cup. I make sure I have my reusable cup with me or if I really want a coffee when I am out and about, I will sit in and have a ceramic cup.
The Scottish Government has recently announced that it will work towards a charge for single-use cups. If a cup charge is used well, it could be a key opportunity to generate revenue that could be invested back into research and action to tackle a significant contributor to Scotland's litter and waste problem – by finding ways to making it easy for people to recycle cups ,like through #TakeItBack , or to increase uptake of reusable cups by developing infrastructure which makes it the norm for people to borrow and return reusable alternatives, like we trialled along the route of the North Coast 500 last year.
While we wait for further information on the implementation of a cup charge, following the recent publication of the analysis of last year’s public consultation, we will keep going with our work. We will continue to call for action to tackle single-use cups, and we will keep campaigning to support changes in behaviour. We are currently planning a cup recycling campaign in Edinburgh, focused on both taking cups back to key stores for recycling as well as trialling on-street cup recycling bins in the vicinity of Edinburgh’s transport hubs, such as Edinburgh bus station and along the tram line between Edinburgh Waverley train station and Haymarket station.
If you have been inspired to take action yourself, and reduce the number of single-use cups you use why not follow Emma’s example and challenge yourself this summer to take time to sit in (or out) and enjoy your drink, to carry your reusable with you on day trips, and when absolutely necessary to use single-use please #TakeItBack for recycling, or bin it in the right bin!
Find out more about our work and position on cups.
* Zero Waste Scotland (2022) Consumption of Single-use Disposable Beverage Cups in Scotland
