International Day of Action on Throwaway Cups

Civil society organisations around the world are taking action on Wednesday 22 March 2017 (23 March in Australia) to show growing consciousness of the need to avoid using throwaway cups, which cause harm to people, forests, water and the climate.

On this international day of action, we invite people all around the world to take a forest-friendly action by choosing to use only reusable cups. Our member organisations are asking fast food and drink companies and politicians to make it easy for us always to drink our tea and coffee from reusable vessels.

Our message is simple: no throwaway cups.

Globally, at least 58 billion throwaway cups are used each year, involving more than a million tonnes of paper. According to the Paper Calculator, their production requires 32 million trees, 100 billion litres of water (that’s 43 thousand Olympic swimming pools) and emits as much greenhouse gases as half a million cars. Hardly any throwaway cups are recycled.

EPN member organisations around the world are campaigning on paper cups on the international day of action, including the following NGOs in China, Germany, Belgium, UK, USA and Australia: Wuhu Ecology Center – Wuhu City, Anhui province; Snow Alliance – Xining City, Qinghai Province; Green Henan – Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China Green Student Forum – Beijing, Green Longjiang – Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province; Green Camel Bell – Gansu; CEPN – Beijing; Robin Wood – Hamburg; Denkhausbremen – Bremen; ARA – Bielefeld; Eco-Develop – Berlin; partner organisations in Freiburg and Tübingen; Reforesting Scotland – Edinburgh; Fern – Brussels; Rainforest Relief – New York; Green America – Washington DC; Stand – Seattle; Markets for Change – Hobart .

Our Cupifesto – A Manifesto for No Throwaway Cups – is available with background information here: http://www.environmentalpaper.eu/cupifesto

See our full Press Release here.

For more information contact: