From 1 July 2023, the university said goodbye to disposable cups, bringing UM in line with the European Union’s Directive on single-use plastics (SUPs). The advice since has been to bring your own cup or mug from home or – for members of staff – from the department kitchenettes. In addition, caterer Eurest Campus and operators Bandito Espresso (two locations, on Oxfordlaan in Randwyck and at FASoS) and Coffeelovers in the SSC all offer their own reusable deposit cups for a euro each, which can be exchanged for a clean cup, a token, or a euro off your next purchase.
A year after implementation, a poll among students at various university buildings shows that few of them are enthusiastic about using their own cups. “It makes a mess in your bag” and “I often forget it” are common responses. The deposit system is more popular, but returning cups is a problem. For example, not every Eurest location accepts returns (because not everywhere has a suitable dishwasher) and walking back to the cafeteria or coffee bar is often “too far”. The result: lots of students have a hoard of deposit cups in their kitchen cupboards at home. “At a certain point, you just stop buying them.” Frequently mentioned alternatives are not drinking coffee at all, or buying coffee away from the university, where they do still give you a disposable cup.
Less coffee
That effect can be seen, says Stephanie Bex, assistant location manager for Eurest, who run the university restaurants. “Over the last year, coffee sales from our unstaffed coffee machines have dropped by about 60 percent.” On the other hand, sales from coffee machines provided by MAAS have remained “more or less stable”, says Mike van Gerwen, contract manager ‘food and drink’ at UM. The difference? Eurest machines are only found in public areas where there are many students and visitors, whereas MAAS machine are usually in or near staff kitchenettes that often have ceramic mugs and a dishwasher.
So the question is, is the new system more sustainable? Neither Bex nor Van Gerwen would swear to it. No, the rubbish bins are no longer full of disposable cups. “But we do see that the use of paper towels has increased, for example, presumably because people are using them to dry their cups,” says Van Gerwen. “And all the reusable cups have to go in the dishwasher, which means higher water and energy usage.” Caterer Eurest also notes that the number of car trips has gone up. “People now often choose to have reusable or ceramic cups provided at meetings and lunches. Those then have to be delivered and returned.”
Hoarding
Bex also notes that staff members still often throw those reusable, hard plastic cups into the waste paper bin. Jeroen Brouwers, co-owner of Bandito Espresso, sees the same thing happen to ‘his’ reusable cups. “Sometimes it’s like people simply don’t care about that extra euro or sustainability. Then add the many students who take the cups home and staff members ‘hoarding’ them at the office just because they can’t be bothered to walk a short distance. Meaning I still have to buy an extra five hundred cups a month.” Eurest also regularly has to stock up on extra reusable cups, says Bex. “We have ordered about 30 thousand cups in total over the last year.” In other words, still extra plastic.
Not to mention the extra costs associated with the new system. “The plastic cups are really light, so they fly through the dishwasher, meaning all sorts of modifications or an expensive new machine,” sighs Brouwers. Not to mention that the plastic cups, unlike the ceramic ones, “all need to be dried by hand when they come out of the dishwasher”, says Bex. “And after meetings they need to be counted and returned. All extra work. We can’t and don’t want to make the coffee much more expensive, so we do notice the impact on the company.” Brouwers: “The new rules are a prime example of something that was decided by a bureaucrat with no thought given to the practical implications.”
Culture shift
‘Side-effects’ like this are common with new regulations, says Rabbe Dormans, environment and sustainability adviser at UM. “Besides, the European SUP Directive is intended to reduce the amount of plastic in the environment, not necessarily to improve sustainability. But that can make the problem worse or increase the costs elsewhere.” And as long as the regulations don’t change, there is little UM can do. “Rijkswaterstaat says we can’t add a surcharge for a disposable cup, which ‘normal’ shops can do for to-go products.”
But it in the end it’s all about a culture shift, says Dormans. “Everyone should be a little more conscious about sustainability. Teaching people to bring their own reusable cup is just the first step.”