Levy suggested to stop coffee cup litter

He’d really prefer like to see those cups ‘returnable’—with a portion of the initial recycling fee refundable, just as it is for pop bottles.

A litter survey conducted four years ago by the province’s environment department found that Tim Horton’s coffee cups accounted for 22 per cent of the identifiable waste in public spaces.

Waste Check manager Gus Green says he believes the province may finally be receptive to the idea of some sort of levy on disposable drinking cups. The idea has been debated for years and is becoming more and more popular with the municipalities.

From Green’s vantage point, a levy on disposable cups could help out with funding of the solid waste management program.

“When the bottle refund program was introduced, a person paid a 10-cent deposit at the store, and got five cents back when they took the bottle to the enviro-depot,” says Green.

The five cents they didn’t get back was split 50/50 between the enviro-depot (which is an independent business) and the municipality. The municipality, in turn, used its portion of the money to fund their waste management program.

Over the years that 50/50 split has changed to 80/20, with the enviro-depot receiving four cents and the municipality receiving just one.

MacAlpine agrees that the additional funds would be helpful, but says mostly he wants to see an end to litter. It’s pretty easy to stack paper cups, so a levy on beverage containers would mean some people would return them for a refund. Or, worst case scenario, people would still litter, but the refund would motivate others to pick up after them.