Bring It! A campaign on reusables
A campaign that brings reusables to the spotlight.
It’s 10:00 am and you are craving your favourite coffee to keep you focused at work. Or maybe you just came out from the surf and want to enjoy a little coffee break before heading back home. Or maybe it’s this gap in your busy day between running errands where you are able to meet a friend for a cuppa and a catch-up.
Wherever you’re coming from, it has never been this easy to be environmentally smart while also being rewarded for getting a takeaway coffee. More than 40 New Plymouth cafes are accepting BYO cups and giving discounts of between 20c to $1 when customers bring their own cup.
The reasons to bring your own cup are manyfold. Bringing your own cup is, first, a way to reduce waste, as single-use cups are not recyclable and end up in landfill (or worse, get littered in our streets or beaches). Second, businesses actually save money by encouraging their customers to BYO, as they don’t need to buy as many (or any) single-use takeaway cups anymore. And third, customers save money by choosing to reuse and to be part of this growing movement that prioritises reducing our waste and minimising packaging. So it’s a win-win-win for everyone!
Reusable cups are super handy, they don’t take much space, they can be personalised to adapt to your personal style, and, let’s be honest, they look a lot cooler than a normal takeaway single-use cup. Seeing someone using their reusable cup can say a lot about them: they are practical, smart people who care about important matters and that value a well-designed, well-thought product that will be used and reused for a long time.
How can you remember to Bring It? Easy! The trick here is to make it a habit: Keys, Phone, Money, Cup!
Don’t forget any of those when you leave your house. Or just always keep one in your car or in your backpack! Wash and repack every time you use them, and you’ll never have to do without your reusable coffee cup when you need it most.
And even if you do forget to Bring It, our local cafes have got you covered. Head over to NPDC’s new webpage http://newplymouthnz.com/BringIt and have a look at the list of cafes that are currently using Again Again cups, a reusable cup- lending system where customers can borrow a take-away cup for a refundable $3 deposit if they forget to bring their own. How good is that?
Some of the cafes participating in Again Again are Escape, Ozone, Elixir, Pekaren, Chaos and Tea House on the Lake, with more launching soon. You are able to take this cup for a walk, to your office or home, and then bring it back another time to any participating café to get your deposit back. You don’t need to wash the cup, just make sure it’s empty and not mouldy. Convenience when you need it most!
This is a brilliant idea, and there is really no need to get a single-use takeaway cup anymore. Have a look at the Bring It page to find out if your favourite café is part of the campaign and give them a high five next time you go for a coffee.
It’s great to see our local businesses engaging in more and more sustainable habits that are benefitting not only their budgets but also their customers’ – and the environment, too. And if they haven’t joined the reusables movement yet, that’s ok! There’s still time.
NPDC is funding cafes that want to join Again Again until 31st March. So have a chat with your favourite cafés about Again Again, or about offering a discount for bringing your own cup, and refer them to the Bring It website.
Read more about Single-use Abstinence and why it’s so important, and check out our article Takeaways Explained for a more detailed review of the different materials used in takeaways (spoiler: BYO is the best option!).
Bring It is a campaign run by the New Plymouth District Council with support from Sustainable Taranaki.
Written by Alexandra Vernal
