Illumination Dance, Green Policy

At all clubs (Illumination Dance, DanceXcess & Eclipse Tango We are adopting the policy of bring your own cups to the events, We are trying to reduce the waist of single use cups. We will still have single use cups at the venues but are incuraging you to bring your own... The Government thanks the Committee for its report on coffee cups. This Government wants to leave our environment in a better state than we found it. Our 25 Year Environment Plan1, published on 11 January 2018, outlines steps to achieve that ambition. The Plan sets out targets to work towards eliminating all avoidable waste by 2050. We will publish a new Resources and Waste Strategy this year which will set out our approach to reducing waste, promoting markets for secondary materials, incentivising producers to design better products and how we can better manage materials at the end of life by targeting environmental impacts. Coffee cups make up 0.7% of total paper packaging waste in the UK. We believe it is important to look at the packaging producer responsibility system and waste management system as a whole, in order to drive the best environmental outcomes. The Committee looked at a number of issues, which the Government has addressed below. Clearer Consumer Messaging Recommendation 1 The use of disposable cups that are difficult to recycle and the lack of specialist reprocessing facilities in the UK results in fewer than 1 in 400 being recycled. Although we have heard that the introduction of a “recyclable cup” would present a simple solution to coffee cup waste in the UK, we heard little substantial evidence about how these cups would meet the manufacturing standards that prohibit contaminated containers from entering mainstream waste recycling. Therefore we believe that more research needs to be done to establish whether contamination is a significant and justified barrier to widespread uptake of these new designs of disposable cups. Although Starbucks has explored the potential of using Frugal Pac cups, there has been no widespread trial or collaborative research as yet. As a large and growing industry, coffee shop companies should work together through the existing Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group to agree the design of a disposable cup which can be easily recycled. Research should focus on how the design of paper cups can work around, or with, the manufacturing standard for “contaminated” paper packaging by exploring ways of recycling coffee cups with other contaminated food packaging. (Paragraph 21) The Government supports the collaborative work of the Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group and we are encouraged by the commitment made by packaging companies and retailers, who are working together to significantly increase paper cup recycling by 2020. We support innovation in cup design, materials and recycling processes to help ensure more cups are recycled.