Recycled ceramic cups a win for environment
A CENTRAL Cairns cafe hopes more coffee retailers will start instigating a cup exchange in a bid to help reduce waste.
Owner of Cairns Square’s Shop 3, Chris Adermann, has been operating a cup exchange for the past three months for customers who have forgotten their keep cup or just don’t want to use a paper coffee cup.
An array of ceramic mugs, donated by customers, are on hand to help reduce waste and provide a guilt-free coffee.
“We’ve sold keep cups the whole time I’ve had the shop, but we are underneath the university and lots of those people are mindful of cup wastage,” Mr Adermann said.
“So we let those guys take mugs upstairs and bring them back down for refills.
“Then one young lady mentioned she saw something about a cafe which had recycled cups, they weren’t necessarily coming back, but they weren’t take away cups. So it was a win for the environment, so we started doing it.
“All the cups are recycled cups, we didn’t go out and buy them. They generally come back so it is nice to know people do care and they keep bringing them back.”
While many customers have their own plastic or glass, reusable keep cups, Mr Adermann estimated about 80 per cent rejected take away cups.
“What they call recyclable coffee cups, they can’t be recycled in Cairns, we just don’t have the facilities here,” he said. “Everyone thinks they are doing the right thing but the fact is it’s all still going into landfill.
“Take away cups are an expense, it’s not much, but to deter people from using them, some cafes charge customers extra if they want to use take away cups.
“We won’t do that but if they come enough times we say it’d be better to use a keep cup or a cup exchange mug.”
The business keeps its straws out of sight too.
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