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Recently, I have begun to notice a trend of coffee shop chains and foodcourts serving cold drinks to dine-in customers in plastic tumblers, usually with a red cover, instead of glass mugs. These tumblers are reusable, as they are of better quality than the typical disposable plastic cup, but the coffee shops throw them away after the customers leave. I can understand the change if the stalls use these tumblers for takeaway orders and reuse them when a customer brings one back. But some chains refuse to reuse these tumblers even when customers go to the trouble of taking them home, cleaning them and bringing them back to reuse. Perhaps they are worried about the risk of contamination.  But to serve these tumblers to dine-in customers and then throw them away is unconscionable, especially in the light of the environmental crisis the Earth is facing – climate change, insufficient landfills, nano-plastic in our food, carbon emissions and so on. Governments all around the world, and in Singapore too, are educating and cajoling their citizens to do their part in reducing, reusing and recycling. Why are these coffee shop chains going against the grain? Can the authorities or trade associations help these chains be more environmentally friendly?