Reduce and reuse

Reusable cups and bottles

A daily cafe visit for a take-out hot drink can leave a serious dent in your bank balance and have a damaging effect on the environment. A good reusable coffee cup can help to stop this. As a nation, we use around 3 billion disposable coffee cups each year, and less than 1% of them are recycled. That’s because single-use cups, made from paper lined with polyethylene, are tricky to recycle and can only be processed at a tiny number of specialised plants.

A reusable cup is the perfect answer for people looking to cut waste without having to kick the caffeine habit. Made from recyclable plastic, glass or bamboo fibre, the best reusable coffee cups are sturdy, sustainable and more stylish than a throwaway cup with a coffee shop logo.

It can save you money in more ways than one. Many high-street chains offer discounts for customers who bring their own cups and it'll also increase the chance of you bringing your own coffee from home.

Choosing to refill a bottle instead of buying bottled drinks when on-the-go will help to cut the 7.7 billion plastic water bottles used in the UK each year.

Find free tap water at over 30,000 places across the UK

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