This December, New Zealand will celebrate Use Your Own Cup . On the 11th of December, say a big ‘NO, THANKS’ to single-use coffee cups and help spread the word about the damage single-use waste is causing our beautiful Aotearoa.
What many people don’t about takeaway cups, is that almost none of them are being recycled and they all end up in landfill. Yes, even those with ‘recyclable’ and ‘compostable’ words on them. The technology, required to recycle takeaway coffee cups, is too complex and isn’t available at most New Zealand recycling .
‘Not a big deal’ you think? ‘I only drink three coffees per week’ you think? Well, the Packaging Forum estimates that nationwide, we use 295 million single-use cups a year!
Use Your Own Cup day is by UYO – ‘Use Your Own’ – New Zealand’s not-for-profit online guide, helping people to find responsible cafes who encourage less waste and support sustainability. Over 600 cafes throughout New Zealand have now joined the initiative and are minimising their environmental impact. All funding that UYO receives from cafes goes to projects and initiatives working on cleaning and saving our planet. Here’s our detailed article about this amazing organisation.
‘I’m almost to excited about a day dedicated to saluting the reuser, a day of amnesty for the cup chucker, a day to buddy up and break up with the old-news habit, a day when we show baristas of Aotearoa some real love by drinking their real coffee from real coffee cups!
Laura Cope, founder of UYO.
On the 11th of December, take a selfie of yourself USING YOUR OWN CUP or staying in a cafe to enjoy your coffee, use hashtag #UYOcupday tag @uyo.nz to spread the word.
If you own a cafe, join this day by going single-use cup free for a day, offer free coffees to those who walk in with their own cups, take pictures and share them on your Instagram with #UYOcupday and LET US KNOW IN ADVANCE by tagging @focusmagazinenz or emailing your awesome plans to info@focusmagazine.co.nz, so we can promote them as well!
Images: katemangostar / Freepik, prostooleh / Freepik