Use of disposable cups declined by 72% in 1 year
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Use of disposable cups at fast food restaurants and coffee shop chains has decreased by 72 percent one year after the establishments voluntarily began participating in a government initiative to reduce the use of plastic items. / Courtesy of Starbucks Korea
By Kim Jae-heun
The use of disposable cups at fast food restaurants and coffee shop chains has decreased by 72 percent one year after the establishments voluntarily began participating in a government initiative to reduce the use of plastic items, the Ministry of Environment said Tuesday.
The ministry collected data on 1,000 outlets of 21 brand stores including 16 coffee shop chains such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Dunkin' Donuts, Angel-in-us, Ediya, A Twosome Place, Caffe Pascucci and Hollys Coffee; and five fast food restaurants that included Lotteria, McDonald's and Burger King, in the metropolitan area nad Incheon between June last year and May.
By August, over 81 percent of the outlets were serving their beverages in multi-use cups such as mugs and glasses.
In July, the outlets used 206 tons of disposable cups but the volume was drastically cut to 58 tons in April.
The 21 brands also provided discounts of 100 won to 400 won per drink to 10.2 million customers bringing their own cups, which cost them 2.9 billion won.
Some chains have also adopted other measures to reduce plastic use ― Starbucks has replaced its plastic straws with paper ones, while Dunkin' Donuts and Angel-in-us use cup lids that don't require the use of a straw.
The number of disposable cups used by the 21 brands nationwide decreased from 701.3 million in 2017 to 677.2 million last year, even though the number of outlets increased by 1,222 over the same period.
“We can live without disposable products and they can be replaced. It is inconvenient without them but we have to make the effort,” a ministry official said.