ONE year ago, independently owned coffee chain Boston Tea Party decided to ban single use plastic cups.

The business is celebrating its first 'Cuppaversary' by making June 1 ‘National Making Things Better Day’.

From now on, each year on June 1, Boston Tea Party will pledge something more for the planet.

This year, it is removing single use plastic milk bottles.

Sam Roberts, co-owner and CEO of BTP said: "What a year it has been since we took the ground breaking decision to remove single use cups from our business.

"The reaction from our teams and customers has been frankly amazing.

“12 months on and the anti-plastic movement is really gathering some significant momentum.

"That said, nothing much has actually changed within the wider industry.

"Lots of noise and sticky plaster fixes, but very little concrete action.

"We are on a continuous journey to try and make things better, and with this in mind we have decided to launch our very own ‘Making Things Better Day’ on June 1.

"Each year we will be announcing a problem we’ll commit to resolve.

"This June we’re gunning for single use plastic milk bottles.

"By the end of this year we reckon we’ll have rid ourselves of them entirely."

To remove single use plastic milk bottles, Boston Tea Party is working with its organic dairy supplier to select the most sustainable solution.

It is already avoiding glass for health and safety reasons and over the next six weeks they are switching to pergals, which save 6.5 milk bottles with each bag in box milk.

BTP will then be switch to a fully reusable, returnable solution with its dairy by the end of the year, becoming the first UK café chain to have done this.

Ecoffee Cup founder David McLagan said: "Staff turnover represents a significant cost with a constant need to train new employees resulting in costs to the business close to £1m per year.

"Since the ban was introduced a year ago, BTP staff turnover has pretty much dropped by over 30 per cent.

"It appears that a casual workforce comprised largely of millennials do genuinely want to believe in a third way of doing things. "Removing single-use cups has obviously struck a chord."