Collapsible travel cup creator welcomes ‘latte levy’

London - A UK government’s decision to impose a 25p tax on all disposable coffee cups – known as the ‘latte levy’ – has been welcomed by one budding inventor and creator of the pokito collapsible cup.

“There are a lot of reusable travel cups already on the market, but many of them are either too big, too heavy, or tend to leak, which limits their reusability,” said Andrew Brooks pokito creator of the pokito.

Brooks crowdfunded the development of the innovative pocket-size cup late in 2016, raising £100,000 towards bringing the concept to life.

Made from food-safety approved thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) and polypropylene (PP), the pokito has built-in insulation to help keep the contents hot.

Based in northeast England, injection moulder Omega Plastics has been producing pokito cups for over a year.

The ‘latte levy’ proposal follows a recent report on the environmental impact of disposable cups by the UK Environmental Audit Committee.

This found that, of the 2.5 billion disposable cups used by UK consumers each year, less than one in 400 are properly recycled.