Submitted by Peter Lumb on Thu, 2019-02-28 15:05
The University Catering Service are changing the pricing structure of hot drinks across all University operated cafés. In line with the University's award-winning sustainable food policy, which includes an aim 'to achieve a significant reduction in waste in all café operations', a new initiative will help to reduce the use of single-use disposable coffee cups by encouraging customers to bring their own reusable mugs or 'KeepCups'. To date, the UCS cup discount has saved tens of thousands of cups being disposed of every year. However this still amounts to a relatively small proportion of hot drink sales across the University. This new initiative therefore aims to help further encourage customers to use re-usable cups.
How will it work?
- All hot drinks prices across the range will be reduced by 25p.
- The reduced price now includes the own-cup discount.
- There will be no further discount for own-cup use as it has already been deducted from the price.
- Customers who wish to be served in a disposable cup will pay a 25p surcharge on the new standard price.
- Coffee menu boards will display the new discounted price as standard including information on the surcharge for use of a disposable cup.
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Example: A regular cappuccino was previously priced at £1.75 and if you use your own cup you would have received a 25p discount leading to an overall cost of £1.50. With the new pricing structure the price of the regular cappuccino would be £1.50 which if using your own cup would not change however if you require a disposable cup you would incur a 25p charge and the cost would increase back to the previous price of £1.75. |
In effect there is no change to the overall cost of the hot drinks and this is not a price increase, it is an exercise in guiding customer behaviour to reduce single-use disposables as displayed by the University College London who reduced disposable cup usage through changing their pricing structure in the same way.
Thank you for your cooperation in helping to meet our sustainability goals and save waste, and please don’t hesitate to ask a member of staff in the cafes for further details, or email environment@admin.cam.ac.uk.
Read more about the University of Cambridge's work on sustainable food here.