Charms Baltic of Half Moon Yoga, Corey Mood of Bound to Earth, Bill Adams of Surfbeach Café and Jessica Glew from Casey’s Café. Photo: Supplied.
A caffeine hit during a road trip often means a single-use coffee cup, bit by bit habits are changing (I need to be better at it) as people travel with their own mug for cafes to fill along the way. A new scheme in the Eurobodalla is helping drive that change in behaviour further.
Business owners from Bodalla to Narooma are lending cups to customers in and effort to reduce landfill and address driver fatigue.
The initiative has customers loaning specially-marked mugs and getting cheaper tea or coffee for doing so. The scheme was introduced to Narooma by Half Moon Yoga’s Charms Baltis, who wanted to eliminate single-use coffee cups from the town.
Eight cafés in the south of the shire are now participating – Bound to Earth, Narooma Ice Creamery Café, The View, Montague Coffee, Casey’s Café, Raven Café and Grill, Blue Earth, and the Surf Club Café.
Ms Baltis says she was looking for ways to expand the program when Eurobodalla Shire Council’s Road Safety Officer Kate McDougall saw an opportunity.
“Council’s provided reusable cups made from a 50/50 blend of rice-husk fibre and food-grade polypropylene,” Ms Baltis says.
“Australians use around three billion single-use coffee cups each year, which end up in landfill or our waterways and oceans. So were giving each of the cafes 25 of the environmentally-friendly cups to loan out.
“There are already a lot of people in Eurobodalla using keep cups for their daily brew. I see the borrow cups as a way to take sustainable use to a new audience.”
Ms McDougall says participating businesses should see an increase in trade, with visitors more likely to stop for a break and a cuppa.
“That helps combat driver fatigue – one of the three big killers on NSW roads,” she says.
All borrow cups are branded with a road-safety message, ‘Don’t Trust Your Tired Self’ and a borrow cup sticker.
“We’re keen to see the scheme grow across the shire,” Ms McDougall says, “It’s a win for businesses, travellers and our planet. Council is proud to offer its support, and we’ve got plenty more cups on offer.”
For more information contact Kate McDougall on 4474 1353 or email [email protected]
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