Disposable cups: 92 percent of customers don’t know whether they pay for them

A morning coffee to go, a quick tea at the station: disposable cups are so much a part of daily life that we barely notice them. According to a new UK study, that is exactly the problem. Most customers don’t even know whether they are paying for the cup, so they have no real chance to make an informed choice. The researchers are therefore calling for a mandatory, clearly visible cup charge across the United Kingdom.

In short: The charge on disposable cups is practically invisible today, and 92 percent of UK customers don’t know whether they pay it. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth propose a mandatory minimum 20p charge, itemised separately on receipts, that anyone can avoid by bringing a reusable cup.

What did the UK researchers study?

The policy brief was produced by the University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics Institute together with Oxford Brookes University, the University of Bath and the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield. The lead researcher is Dr Kate Whitman, and the findings were also reported by the science news site phys.org.

The team did not work from behind a desk alone. The research rests on several pillars:

• a review of the academic and policy literature on the topic;
• a field experiment in three university cafés, measuring how the share of disposable and reusable cups changes when a cup charge is applied;
• surveys of café customers about cup charges;
• interviews with customers about what helps and what hinders them from using their own cup;
• interviews with policy, retail and behavioural science experts on how feasible and acceptable a mandatory charge would be.

Why are disposable cups so rarely recycled?

Around 2.5 billion disposable cups are used in the UK every year, and fewer than one percent of them are recycled. The more precise estimate is just 0.25 percent, roughly one cup in every four hundred.

Many people assume a paper cup is simply paper waste. In fact, it is lined with a thin layer of plastic that keeps the hot coffee from soaking through, and it is precisely this mix of paper and plastic that makes processing so difficult. Ambiguous “recyclable” labelling also leads many people to put cups in the wrong bin.

Specialised technologies do exist. We have previously written about how the James Cropper paper mill turns coffee cups into a children’s book. But they only help if the cup is collected separately and actually reaches them. A cup that ends up on the street, in mixed waste or contaminating the recycling bin never gets that chance.

“Biodegradable” cups are no silver bullet either. As we explained in connection with Heineken’s plant-based cup campaign, in practice they rarely reach a composting facility where they would genuinely break down.

In the end, the community pays. In England, cups account for around 8 percent of litter by volume, which shows up in local authorities’ street cleaning and waste management costs, and ultimately in taxpayers’ pockets.

The charge almost nobody knows about

Many UK cafés and retailers already apply some kind of cup charge, or offer a discount to customers who bring their own cup. But the amounts vary from place to place, and they are often not displayed anywhere at the till. The study’s headline figure shows the result: 92 percent of customers don’t know whether they are paying for a disposable cup.

The logic is simple. If I don’t know I’m paying for the cup, I won’t notice that I could save money with my own. Behavioural research shows that price signals work best when they are visible at the moment the decision is made. As Dr Kate Whitman puts it, the disposable cup is currently the default choice, and a clear, memorable charge would help change exactly that.

The field experiment confirmed this. When cafés made the cost of a disposable cup explicit, more customers chose a reusable option, and the cafés also gained customer goodwill.

Other research points the same way. A UK choice experiment published in 2025 found that a mandatory charge of 25–30p is enough to halve the share of people choosing a disposable cup, while achieving the same through discounts would take at least 70p. People react far more strongly to losing something than to gaining something.

Four recommendations, one goal

The researchers stress that reuse can take several forms. Customers can bring their own cup (refill), a café can lend cups that are returned on the premises (closed-loop reuse), and shared collection and washing systems can operate across several retailers (open-loop reuse). A transparent charge supports all three by making the disposable cup the less attractive default. The package consists of four points:

1. A mandatory minimum 20p charge on every disposable cup. A uniform amount sends the same message everywhere and creates a level playing field for businesses.
2. Transparent communication at the point of sale. The charge must be clearly displayed, itemised separately on receipts and digital orders, and customers must be told plainly how to avoid it.
3. The charge must remain avoidable. It cannot be built into the price of the drink: anyone arriving with their own cup, or drinking in from a ceramic mug or dish, pays nothing. The aim is an incentive, not a general price rise for takeaway coffee.
4. A baseline and ongoing monitoring. Current practice should be mapped before implementation, followed by simple reporting and periodic evaluation to see whether the uptake of reusable cups actually grows.

The carrier bag charge has already proven it works

The proposal did not come out of nowhere. In the UK, the single-use carrier bag charge has already shown that a small but mandatory and universally applied charge can change habits for good: according to the UK environment department, bag use in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 98 percent since the charge was introduced. According to Dr Whitman, applying the same principle to cups could make reuse a normal part of everyday life and shift the focus from managing waste to preventing it.

Scotland has already committed to a mandatory cup charge, and the researchers want the whole of the UK to adopt a consistent rule. That would simplify life for chains operating across borders, give customers the same experience everywhere, and give investors more confidence to fund the washing and reverse-logistics infrastructure that reuse needs, with the potential to create green jobs in the circular economy.

What does this mean for Hungary and the EU?

Although the proposal is British, the issue is just as relevant here. The EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) places strong emphasis on reuse and refill. As we detailed in our article on the official PPWR guidance, businesses selling takeaway food and drinks will have to let customers use their own containers. Meanwhile, reusable packaging is becoming critical infrastructure in European supply chains.

Hungarian regulation has its own cup story: we have previously covered the postponement of the ban that also affects plastic-lined paper cups. The lesson of the UK study applies to any regulation: as long as customers cannot see the price of the cup, even well-intentioned rules won’t change the morning routine. And the volume of packaging waste is ultimately reduced most effectively by prevention, not by processing.

What you can do tomorrow morning

You don’t have to wait for new rules to change your own cup habits:

• Carry your own cup. A well-sealing, easy-to-clean cup fits in a bag or the car.
• If you have ten minutes, drink in. A ceramic mug is the simplest reusable cup there is.
• Ask about a discount. If a café offers money off for your own cup but doesn’t display it, asking signals that there is demand.
• Choose wisely. Not all reusable cups are equal: tests found that melamine-based bamboo cups can release substances harmful to health.
• Mind the hygiene. You can read about the rules cafés and venues must follow for customers’ own and returnable cups in our article on reusable cups.
• Use it for a long time. A reusable cup takes more material and energy to make, so it really pays off the more often you use it.

Today, the price of a disposable cup is hidden in the price of the coffee. The UK researchers’ message is simple: make it visible, and many customers will choose the better option on their own.

Frequently asked questions about disposable cups

Why are disposable cups so rarely recycled?

Because paper cups are lined with a thin layer of plastic that makes them waterproof but makes it hard to separate the paper from the plastic. According to UK figures, only about 0.25 percent of the roughly 2.5 billion cups used each year are actually recycled; the rest go to landfill, incineration or end up as litter.

How large a cup charge do the UK researchers propose?

They propose a mandatory, uniform charge of at least 20p on every disposable cup. It should be clearly displayed at the till, itemised separately on receipts and digital orders, and fully avoidable: customers who bring their own cup or drink in from a ceramic mug should pay nothing at all.

Why don’t current voluntary cup charges work?

Because almost nobody notices them. In the research led by the University of Portsmouth, 92 percent of customers did not know whether they were paying for a disposable cup. When charges vary from café to café and are not displayed, they send no noticeable signal, so they do little to encourage people to bring their own cup.

Why do the researchers point to the carrier bag charge?

Because in the UK it has already shown that a small but mandatory and universally applied charge can change habits for good. According to the UK environment department, the use of single-use carrier bags in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 98 percent since the charge was introduced.

What can I do about disposable cups myself?

The simplest step is to carry your own well-sealing cup and, when you have time, drink your coffee in a ceramic mug on the premises. It is worth asking whether the café offers a discount for your own cup. When buying a reusable cup, avoid melamine-based bamboo cups and use the one you choose as often as possible.

Sources:

• Whitman, K., March, A., Pearson, N., Nash, N., Greenwood, S. and Bowyer, C. (2026): A fair and transparent approach to single-use cup charges in the UK. Revolution Plastics Institute, University of Portsmouth.
• Phys.org (September 2026): Report calls for government to introduce a charge on disposable cups. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-disposable-cups.html