Inner West joins war on single use cups

Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Inner West Council announced its partnership with Responsible Cafes to combat the environmental waste of disposable coffee cups.

The Responsible Cafes initiative encourages local cafes to incentivise customers to bring their own cup in return for discounts and other benefits.

Takeaway coffee cups are lined on the inside with a plastic film, making them notoriously difficult to recycle because most waste facilities don’t have the infrastructure to do it.

The goal of Responsible Cafes is to keep 1 billion coffee cups out of landfill by 2019.

Mayor Darcy Byrne voiced his support for the partnership, noting that almost 40 cafés are already participating in the Inner West area.

“Responsible Cafes’ priorities are in line with Council’s ongoing commitment to reduce waste,” he said.

“We look forward to seeing more cafés in the Inner West join up and more coffee lovers getting their caffeine fix with reusable cups.”

Responsible Cafes founder, Justin Bonsey, says reusable cups are rapidly becoming the norm, and cafés have a major role to play as change makers in the community.

Most cafés joining Responsible Cafes offer between 50c and $1 off for BYO cup users, but businesses can choose the discount suits them best.

Cafés keen to make a difference can sign up on the Responsible Cafes website (www.responsiblecafes.org) to download free promotional materials and be listed on a searchable map of participating cafes visited by over a million people per year.

ENDS

For further information, please contact Alethea Dean  on 9392 5334