A team of Greenpeace volunteers are protesting single-use plastic outside of the new Tim Hortons innovation cafe grand opening at 130 King Street today.
Since the advocacy group found out that Tims is the number-two plastic polluter in the country in their 2018 audit, they have been asking the coffee chain to break free from plastics.
Protesters from Greenpeace are outside the new Tim Hortons Innovation Cafe in #Toronto asking the chain to #BreakFreeFromPlastic. pic.twitter.com/Iq9XBB0Tfd
— blogTO (@blogTO) July 25, 2019
The problem is the interior of Tims’ coffee cups are coated with plastic, which the recycling process cannot detach from the paper exterior, Rommel Bellosillo, a Greenpeace local group organizer, explained.
The Tim Hortons website says, “Yes, the Tim Hortons cup can be recycled but it is not accepted for recycling everywhere at this time.”
“Now they are opening this fancy boutique where they have glasses, so why can’t they do this across all locations,” Bellosillo said.
He finds it problematic that only customers at this upscale location in the heart of downtown Toronto have the option to drink their coffee out of glass mugs.
The coffee chain announced a number of changes to their single-use plastic products last month, including a new lid that is made out of polypropylene, a “100 per cent recyclable” plastic, a strawless lid for cold drinks and paper straws
“We know that only around 9 per cent of plastic that is recyclable is actually diverted for recycling in Canada," Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada’s head of oceans and plastics campaign, said in a press release.
Please stop it humans, just use your own metal cups that seal - really easy! Be part of the solution🌲
— Marina (@4VictoriaBC1) July 25, 2019
"These new lids just ensure that Tim Hortons will likely continue to be one of Canada’s top polluters," she added.
Greenpeace is asking Tims to incentivize customers to bring their own reusable mugs when they buy coffee by reducing the cost by $1.
Whether the protest is successful or not, hundreds of Tims lovers have anxiously waited in line to enter the new innovation cafe, so the Greenpeace protest will undoubtedly attract a viewing.
by Hannah Alberga via blogTO
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