A majority of the public have thrown their weight behind plans for a 25p charge levied on all drinks sold in disposable cups, a new poll has shown.

The exclusive survey for The Independent reveals 54 per cent of people support the latte levy, which aims to reduce the worsening environmental impact of the mountain of disposable cups thrown away in the UK every year.

The poll by BMG Research also suggests the levy – backed by an Independent campaign – would persuade most people to stop using the cups.

Some 2.5 billion of the rarely recycled cups are chucked away annually in the UK causing huge damage, but academic researchers have concluded charging 25p on every drink bought in cup would cut the number by 300 million.

A weighted sample of more than 1,500 people were asked whether they support a proposal with 27 per cent “strongly” backing and a further 27 per cent “somewhat” supporting – 54 per cent backing in total.

Just 20 per cent said that to some degree they would oppose the tax while, 24 per cent said they would “neither support nor oppose”.

When respondents were asked how likely they would be to bring in their own reusable cup or container if such a tax was introduced, a majority said they would – with 29 per cent responding it is “fairly likely” while 27 per cent said it is “very likely”.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

Just 14 per cent said they would be “very unlikely” to bring in their own reusable cup instead of paying the extra charge and a further 20 per cent said “fairly unlikely”.

Under proposals put forward by MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee earlier this month the 25p levy could people’s behaviour, and raise money to improve waste reprocessing facilities, so-called “binfastructure”.

Chair of the committee Mary Creagh told The Independent: “It’s really encouraging to see so many people backing the latte levy to tackle the mountain of cups that we create every year.

“Now it’s time for the Government to show leadership on this by bringing in the levy and setting a clear pathway for packaging products to reduce dependence on plastics and phase out non-recycleable cups by 2023 as we have recommended.”

Creating the paper cups to feed the world’s burgeoning coffee house culture sees some 6.5 million trees felled every year.

The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the production and shipment of 2.5 billion cups – the number discarded in the UK every year – is equivalent to that produced by burning around 120 million litres of petrol.

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Hardly any of them are recycled because the resin they are covered in makes it costly to do so, which means most end up being incinerated or in landfill emitting methane as they decompose and leaking ink into the environment.

Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner Fiona Nicholls said the country needs to make sure it recycles all the plastic it produces, or risk making millions of tonnes of pollution, which ends up in the food chain.

“Non-recyclable plastic products from polystyrene, PVC or mixed materials need to be phased out, and quickly,” she said.

“We need to reduce plastic packaging wherever we can, which in this case means replacing disposable cups with reusable cups, and encouraging business and consumers to use them.”

She added: “This is a big problem which is getting bigger all the time … we must not allow the packaging industry to water down these recommendations any further.”

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Environment minister Theresa Coffey has promised some sort of specific measure on disposable cups when the Government’s waste strategy is published later in the year, but it is yet unclear as to whether they will go for the levy and the push to recycle all cups.

The Independent understands that while the Government is aware of and engaged with the problem, a key stumbling block is finding finance for the extra recycling capacity needed.