Reusable coffee cups on the rise
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On an average day, people in Port Lincoln go through several hundreds of take away coffee cups.
This results in a staggering average of 300,000 take away coffee cups piling up in Port Lincoln landfill each year.
Port Lincoln councillor Andrea Broadfoot and local resident Jack Ritchie said people should be concerned about the addition coffee cups created to waste.
“It’s about how we are aware of reusing our own cups,” Ms Broadfoot said.
Mr Ritchie said there were many ways for consumers to be smart with coffee consumption and to take responsibility for reducing waste.
“Restaurants and cafes are providing good services but the customers have a responsibility,” he said.
Mr Ritchie said he and others should consider taking more time drinking coffee by sitting down in cafes.
He said it should also be about slowing down to enjoy the coffee by supporting the business, not being in a rush, engaging in the community and not using a throw away cup.
Mr Ritchie said it was great to see cafes give customers the choice to not rely on throw away cups by providing discount when they used ‘keep cups’.
“When people are given a choice they will do the right thing,” he said.
It’s about encouraging users to be a bit more mindful of their footprint.
Rachel Hawkins
The My EP shop local initiative saw the opportunity in people wanting to be smarter with take away coffee waste by creating a branded keep cup.
My EP founder Rachel Hawkins said she had definitely seen a rise in people purchasing the keep cups, which were made in Melbourne from recycled materials.
“It’s about encouraging users to be a bit more mindful of their footprint.”
She said changing consumer behaviour on the takeaway coffee culture was hugely important.
“You just have to look at the numbers with the amount of throw away coffee cups that are going to landfill each year,” she said.
Many local cafes are starting to see a transition in customer attitude to take away coffee with a rise of reusable cups.
“We’ve found that there’s been an increase in people using keep cups,” cafe owner Elouise Dukalskis said.
Reusable coffee cups are available at most supermarkets and homeware stores.