The Problem: More people need to use reusable coffee cups to reduce waste and we need to plant more trees to fight climate change.
The Solution: Coffee shops donate to major forest restoration programme each time someone uses a reusable cup.
Many cafes now offer a discount to customers that bring a reusable coffee cup and some outlets, particularly in universities, have introduced a charge for customers who use a single-use cup.
These charges and incentives were born out of the success of the 5p plastic bag tax on reducing single-use plastic bags, but they have proved far less effective with coffee cups.
Given that coffee is already an expensive option, financial incentives are unlikely to have that big an impact; anyone worried about money would not buy a £3 cup of coffee regularly, when they could carry a hot flask or just drink it at home.
I therefore propose a different approach to incentivise people to carry re-usable cups, which is to move away from financial incentives towards providing in-kind benefits which will help fight climate change.
I suggest the creation of a Coffee Against Climate Change Fund, which shops and consumers can sign up to be a part of.
Any shop that signs up commits to donate 20p to the fund every time someone uses a re-usable cup, and any customer that signs up receives a barcode to attach to their coffee cup or keep on an app on their phone, which is scanned each time they use it, enabling them to keep track of how much money they have raised, the impact it is had, and enables them to be entered into competitions to win prizes.
Having a single fund that everyone signs up to enables economies of scale to be achieved, so large projects can be supported and the messaging around the impact of the fund can be made as effective as possible, with a single social media presence and source of videos and stories about the impact of the fund.
The fund itself would seek to identify areas in the world that have suffered from environmental damage and buy the land and work with local communities to restore it back to its natural ecosystem, which is one of the most effective ways of taking carbon out of the atmosphere to help fight climate change. It also provides a host of positive stories beyond just climate change, including helping protect endangered animals and birds and supporting communities previously living in poverty.
To further incentivise people to sign up to the scheme, prizes would be offered; for example, every time someone used their cup, they would be entered into a prize draw to win a luxury holiday to visit the restoration site for a luxury safari holiday. These competitions would run regularly to keep interest high.
The scheme therefore has two incentives to draw people into it. Firstly, they are able to help fight climate change at no cost to themselves, simply by carrying a cup around. Secondly, the chance to win a free luxury holiday creates a more selfish incentive for people to join the scheme, potentially attracting people not that interested in environmental issues.
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