Coffee shops should be made to charge 25 pence for the use of disposable cups say MPs in Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).

The second full report from the EAC’s inquiry into the effects of disposable drinks packaging, released today (5 January), calls for the government to introduce legislation similar to the plastic bag charge in order to bring the UK’s use of disposable coffee cups under control.

Over the course of the inquiry, the committee heard that the UK’s total annual coffee cup waste (30,000 tonnes) is enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall and estimates suggest that by 2025 more than 3.75 billion disposable cups could be used per year, yet just 0.25 per cent of those currently used are recycled.

A target of all single-use cups to be recycled by 2023 is also recommended in the report, as well as an overhaul of the UK producer responsibility scheme, something discussed with regards to plastic bottles in the EAC’s previous report.