THE OVERTON CUP
The Overton Cup was created to address the copious amounts of single use coffee cups we saw going into our local bins. At the time, the Overton Cup made a real stir in the local community (in a positive way, of course) and even made it into the national news.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
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Taking part in the scheme are all our coffee shops as well as the grocer.
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When you buy your usual favourite hot drink, smoothie or soup at some of our local shops or cafes, you can pay a deposit of just £1 to use one of these fancy reusable plastic cups.
When you’ve finished with your cup you then pop it into any of our dirty or used Overton Cup deposit points in the village, either straight away or later when it suits you. As long as it isn’t damaged, you get your £1 back. You don’t have to return your cup to where you purchased your drink, it can be returned to any deposit point.
Hang on, but isn't this just another plastic cup?
Yes, but they're made from polypropylene, a food-safe plastic that is strong, durable and recyclable. By choosing a reusable cup that’s made from plastic, we are using the material for its proper use: plastic lasts a long time so we should use it for a long time. These cups are designed to be used hundreds, if not thousands of times. They are a means to address the problem of single-use, where an item that can last forever is used only once, for just a few minutes.
Right, so what’s wrong with compostable cups?
Compostable cups, though plastic free, are still single use. They get used for an average of 15 minutes before being thrown away, and then need to be sent to a special industrial composting facility in order to be composted. We don’t have such a facility so they get binned with the rest of the rubbish and incinerated. The only proper solution is to avoid single-use and have a reusable cup.
But will it actually keep my drink hot?
These are not thermos cups, but they will keep your hands safe and your drinks hot just like any disposable cup.
It feels a bit flimsy, what happens if it breaks?
To keep costs low the design is simple, compared to ‘keep cups' but the cup is robust and designed to last for hundreds of uses. If it does break please do return it to a deposit point for recycling, however your £1 is not returned if the cup deposited is broken.
What about a lid?
You may be offered a standard disposable lid for your cup, or you may be offered a reusable silicone one. You can purchase a reusable silicone lid for £1 but, unlike the cup, you keep the lid forever and it does not form part of the deposit scheme.
Which cup is most environmentally friendly?
We can compare the carbon footprints. If you chose an Overton Cup 7 times instead of 7 disposable cups, you will use 41% less carbon. If you use an Overton Cup every day for 6 months instead of 182 single-use disposable cups, then you will save 95% of the carbon.