What Does The Latte Levy Mean For Eco-Friendly Travel Mugs?

There are mixed reactions to the new ‘latte levy’, a charge on disposable coffee cups imposed by UK members of parliament. In fact, this new charge could see disposable cups being banned in 5 years. The issue is that the UK produces 30,000 tonnes of coffee cup waste annually and because they are difficult to recycle due to the materials they are made of, most of them are littered: half a million per day to be exact! However, this new charge, with the aim to make more people environmentally aware, will have a significant impact on the sales of reusable coffee cups. When the price of a cappuccino on your local high-street is already significant, the additional charge serves as an effective deterrent from using the disposable cups provided by the coffee chains.

More and more people are beginning to purchase re-usable coffee cups; the 25p every day will add up far more than one single splurge will. This is why brands are now jumping on board with this new charge in an eco-friendly way to advertise. People may be carrying a coffee from any major coffee chain but if it’s carried in a reusable cup with your brand’s logo on it, that is all people will see. In January of this year, retailers reported that the sales of reusable coffee cups are soaring.

As we have mentioned before, some major coffee brands currently offer money off your coffee if you bring your own cup, encouraging people to stop using disposable cups. However, this ‘latte levy’ will be adding money to your coffee price, therefore when this scheme is fully in place there will be a huge demand for reusable coffee cups.

Promotional travel mugs are an excellent marketing tool due to their large printing space, convenience, quality, and the fact that they are often used every day by a lot of people, either to fill up from home or in a coffee shop. We predict that it won’t take very long before we see most people walking to work or University with a reusable coffee cup in hand! In fact, evidence submitted to MPs demonstrated that the ‘latte levy’ could lead to an annual reduction in the use of 50-300 million disposable coffee cups. Could coffee-drinkers soon be walking around with a travel mug displaying your logo?