Keep Cups are a Keeper!
It goes without saying that 2018 is the year Aussies have (unofficially) officially declared war; war on waste that is. Take for example the recent nationwide single-use plastic bag ban enforced by Coles and Woolies. Or you may have noticed the sudden disappearance of the humble plastic straw from your local bar (much to the detriment of red lipstick wearers). Like it or not, times are
a-changing, and your precious disposable coffee cups are next.
That’s right, be fully prepared to haul around your personal canvas shopping bag, metal straw, and now portable and reusable cup for your daily dose (or double daily dose) of java. Some may roll their eyes at these seemingly foreign concepts (I see you), but considering the 52 megatons of waste produced by Australians each year, inclusive of over 1 billion coffee cups, most would agree it’s about time to embrace this change.
Astoundingly, every half an hour as many as 50,000 take-away cups (that’s enough to fill an old Melbourne tram) in Australia are wasted and end up in a landfill. If that’s not reason enough to wage war on coffee cups, I don’t know what is.
Text on tram reads: Up to 1 billion coffee cups go to landfill every year. Stop the waste #BYOcoffeecup. [1]
The local surge in demand for sustainable and reusable materials has affected Australian reusable cup manufacturers such as KeepCup in the best possible way, creating plenty of action for the business as the KeepCup tries to keep up with a massive influx of orders.
You’ll be seeing a lot more of these guys in the near-future [2]
Entrepreneur Abigail Forsyth believes the main revelation driving the demand for KeepCups has been the number of people who previously bought into the myth that disposable cups were recyclable (I’ll admit, until recently I was one of those people).
Forsyth explains: “A lot of people weren’t aware that we exist as a pretty good solution to this problem. Also, the awareness that we’re an Australian made product has been helping drive the demand.”
“We’ve been around advocating for the banning of single-use packaging since 2009 where we had to campaign at cafe’s to prove we weren’t contravening health regulations with the KeepCup,” she says.
“The sincerity of it [KeepCup] and its belief in sustainability is reflected through the entire business.”
“We’ve come a long way.”[3]
Since its humble beginnings in 2009, café’s and corporate clients alike have banded together to make sure customers and staff stray away from using coffee cups with harmful packaging. Some café’s even reward its customers with discounts and specials for bringing in their KeepCup, providing further incentive to invest in one. Not to mention you get to choose from a range of sizes and attractive customisable colours – let your personality shine through coffee! (Well, more than usual).
Simply bring in your Keepcup and reap the environmental and financial rewards [4]
These cups are made in Australia, dishwasher-safe, lightweight, durable and made from BPA-free polypropylene. If you take it to the café every day it will last you hundreds of uses, and at the end of its life the KeepCup is 100% recyclable – bonus! [5]
Affordable, attractive, kind to your wallet and good for the environment – what’s not to love? Not to mention it’s a great conversation starter and makes you look like a regular Captain Planet. For those of you not yet convinced, think about it in relation to refillable water bottles. Ditching bottled water and using a personal flask these days is common practice and a no brainer – the very same concept can be applied to the KeepCup.
Of course, it’s perfectly understandable that the knee jerk reaction to this change, or any change for that matter is to fight it. But why fight something that is inherently positive? Go on, sacrifice a little convenience, and do the right and obvious thing for the environment – your grandchildren will thank you for it.
Written by Sam Godenzi
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Sources:
[1]: Broadsheet, (2018), Tram and coffee cups [ONLINE]. Available at: (https://www.broadsheet.com.au/media/cache/59/a2/59a2612111948a347aef30f6bd51e3d8.jpg) [Accessed 13 September 2018]. [2]: Sustainable Campus (2018), Keep Cups in a row [ONLINE] https://sustainablecampus.unimelb.edu.au/a-z/c/coffee-cups [Accessed 13 September 2018]. [3] Women’s Agenda. 2017. Abigail Forsyth’s KeepCup sees 400% growth following ‘War On Waste’. [ONLINE] Available at: https://womensagenda.com.au/business/entrepreneurs/gone-crazy-abigail-forsyths-keepcup-sees-400-growth-following-war-waste/. [Accessed 25 July 2018]. [4] I’m Spender (2018) Keep cup in café [ONLINE] (http://www.imspender.com/articles/yong-bie-liao-xing-ba-ke-xi-gu) [Accessed 13 September 2018]. [5] Australian National University. 2018. Buy your KeepCup and help to protect the environment. [ONLINE] Available at: https://services.anu.edu.au/news-events/buy-your-keepcup-and-help-to-protect-the-environment. [Accessed 25 July 2018].******************************
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