Monmouth are also trail blazers in the environmental stakes

Amongst this bustling melting pot of world cuisines is Monmouth coffee, considered by many coffee connoisseurs to be the best in the realms of ethical sourcing, coffee bean roasting and final cup.

Monmouth are also trail blazers in the environmental stakes, making the bold decision to offer only reusable cups for takeaway drinks.

Every year in the UK, it is estimated that around 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away and go to landfill.

Most paper coffee cups that claim to be recyclable are included within this rather frightening figure, mostly due to an insufficient recycling infrastructure to support their proper disposal.

As coffee cups must necessarily hold a hot liquid for a prolonged period, those made of paper are usually lined with plastic, and the two materials are bonded together to make a robust, user and hot liquid friendly cup.

In most recycling facilities, the equipment is not advanced enough to separate the plastic and paper, but rather recognises the plastic as a contaminant and re-routes the cup to landfill.

Likewise, there are very few facilities to process compostable cups, and though these do decompose, they take an exceptionally long period of time to do so.

Monmouth offer a re-usable, rent-a-cup scheme, whereby customers pay a £5 deposit for use of a re-usable Ecoffee Cup, made of wood fibre, starch and resin.

This deposit is refunded upon the cup’s safe return.

Monmouth estimate that this move will prevent half a million single use cups going to landfill ever year, which whilst a seemingly small victory, could force significant, large-scale change if adopted across the wider coffee industry.