Disposable coffee cups face bans across the Bay Area

SFgate ^ | November 12, 2019 | Dan Gentile

[KingofZion]

Next time you stop by a cafe and order a coffee to-go, you may need to BYOC.

Earlier this year, some Bay Area coffee shops got rid of disposable cups and now even more will require customers to either bring their own or “rent” a mug.

Berkeley is pioneering the new trend, having passed a disposable cup fee, and shops will begin charging customers 25 cents for every disposable cup used beginning this January.

Ahead of the change, the city has piloted a program that lets customers rent real mugs and be able to return them at 11 locations throughout the city, according to the Chronicle.

The trend is spreading to Palo Alto where they’ll implement the same policy in 2021, and perhaps San Francisco, where similar legislation has been proposed.

The change is inspired by a report by Oakland nonprofit For Here Please, which studied the environmental impact of cafes and estimates that coffee shops use anywhere from 1,500 to 4,000 disposable cups every week.

Several Berkeley shops began participating in a program with a Colorado start-up named Vessel that lets customers avoid the 25 cent fee and instead rent a cup, with a hefty $15 fee if it isn’t returned. Oakland coffee shop Perch offers yet another alternative, glass jars for rent for a much more affordable 50-cent deposit.

*** Despite the hypothesis that the change may burden shops, Perch states that it doesn’t take the staff much more time to clean jars than it does to restock disposables, but cafes without dishwashing capabilities would likely suffer.

[cuban leaf]

In my city, we chose disposable coffee cups to human chit on the sidewalks. To each their own, I suppose.

[smvoice]

They CAN'T bring in their own cups. They're using THOSE as TOILETS. ☕

[Kazan]

But you can take a dump in the street and get free needles if you want to inject drugs into your body.

[oldasrocks]

So do like the guy who made straws that looked like syringes just bigger ones.

Either that or carry a slurpy cup.

[ronnie raygun]

But sh## in the streets is ok

[TomGuy]

the city has piloted a program that lets customers rent real mugs and be able to return them at 11 locations throughout...

How progressive!

Oh wait. Cola companies were doing this with bottle deposits and returns a century ago.

[higgmeister]

Ahead of the change, the city has piloted a program that lets customers rent real mugs and be able to return them at 11 locations throughout the city, according to the Chronicle.

I'd like to report that my car was broken into.

What did they take, ma'am?

They smashed the side window and took my Starbucks for deposit coffee cup right out of the holder.

[Cobra64]

Ok, let’s see... ban coffee cups, but it’s ok to defecate on sidewalks.

[mumblypeg]

“...instead rent a cup, with a hefty $15 fee if it isn’t returned..”

Due and payable, of course, when I never return.
Which makes perfect sense in the alternate universe that is the Bay Area.

[Califreak]

I hope I can get out of this state before I die.

I hate all this BS.

[trebb]

Now they can accessorize their fanny packs to include a hook or pouch to hold their ever-present coffee cups....I hear they make great emergency urinals for those too prissy to void themselves on the sidewalks...maybe that can be used as a “bonus”.