Stars’n’Bars will no longer serve takeaway coffee in disposable paper cups. According to the restaurant’s co-founders Didier Rubiolo and Kate Powers, “If we all switched to reusable drink containers, we could stop 500 billion paper or plastic cups ending up every year in the dump, or worse…in the ocean.”

Five hundred billion cups standing end to end would circumnavigate the globe 1360 times.
In the past, the port-side eatery has used a biodegradable disposable takeaway cup made from recycled materials but even these end up in landfills because there is no viable system to recycle them.

In fact, less than one percent of so called “recyclable” paper cups actually get recycled as paper-based cups are usually lined with a membrane of polyethylene (plastic) to make them waterproof, but it means they are not recyclable alongside paper or cardboard.

Stars’n’Bars has purchased reusable mugs that are lightweight and made from sustainable bamboo and eco-friendly silicone and will sell the mugs at a reduced price in order to encourage customers to reduce plastic waste. Customers can also bring their own refillable mugs.

Stars’n’Bars has already stopped serving plastic straws with its beverages and will only provide biodegradable straws if customers insist. Staff are also trained to explain why the ban and the dangers of plastic straws.

The switch to reusable takeaway cups is the next step in its campaign to support Monaco’s National Pact for Energy Transition, which has the goal of cutting the principality’s carbon footprint by 50 percent by the year 2030.

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