Greener Monaco: Stars’N’Bars ban Disposable Cups

The Stars’N’Bars restaurant in Monaco will no longer serve hot drinks in disposable cups. Customers will be encouraged to bring their own refillable mugs or to buy reusable eco-mugs made of bamboo, which are for sale in the restaurant.

According to Stars’N’Bars 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 in landfills every year…or worse…in the ocean.”   (Five hundred billion cups standing end to end would wrap around the Earth 1,360 times!)

In the past, the restaurant has used a biodegradable disposable takeaway cups made from recycled materials, but even these cups end up in landfills because there is no viable system to recycle them.  In fact, less than 1% of so-called “recyclable” paper cups actually get recycled.  (Paper-based cups are usually lined with a membrane of polyethylene (plastic) to make them waterproof, but it means they are not recyclable.)

The restaurant has purchased reusable mugs that are lightweight, 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 reusable mug or thermos.

Stars’N’Bars has already stopped serving plastic straws with its beverages and will only provide biodegradable straws if customers insist. (Staff is trained to explain 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% by the year 2030.