Reducing Single-Use Coffee Cups in the Workplace

For many, coffee is a critical part of a workday or any day. However, single-use coffee cups don't need to be part of this daily ritual. For an office of any size, single-use coffee cups and lunch packaging are among the easiest ways to move up the waste hierarchy and encourage your team to reduce and reuse before relying on recycling or composting.

Often, many businesses take the first step to provide all staff with their own reusable coffee cup. This is a great step. However, this still relies on the individuals to have the motivation, time, and opportunity to incorporate it into their daily routine. Many, despite their best efforts, will find it difficult to remember their cup.

Practical Solutions for Reducing Single-Use Cups

• Create a mug library: Build up a stash of reusable cups in the office and keep them somewhere visible that reminds people to grab them when heading out to get their coffee.

• Partner with local cafes: Ask the most popular cafes in your area to hold a stash of cups for your team. The baristas probably already know who is on your team, most baristas hate wasting single-use coffee cups, and the business hates paying for them - it's a win-win!

• Utilize reusable cup systems: Encourage cafes to take part in reusable coffee cup systems like Green Caffeen, which lets people 'check out' a reusable cup and return it to participating cafes.

• Outsource the process: If you're in a bigger office, find a service that can do all the hard work for you! Cercle is one of many in Australia, who provide the infrastructure and service to make it all work.

• Highlight cafe discounts: Highlight the local cafes that provide discounts for bringing your own cup, especially for those who drink more than one cup a day.

Addressing Ambivalence Towards Reusable Cups

Some ideas on tackling ambivalence:

• Make it personal - collect single-use coffee cups separately from other waste for a while and use them to help people understand the environmental savings.

• Make it a competition - collect coffee cups in separate bins across your organization and gamify it.

• Make it top-down - have leaders engage in comms, post about their participating and celebrate those who are getting on board.

Tips for separating cups:

• Color-code your receptacles and clearly label the coffee cup bin.

• Add signage and posters that stand out.

• Don't make it too specific - a bin for "single-use coffee cups" will be most effective.

• Make it consistent - keep your bins in complete stations.

• Involve your green team, leaders, or others passionate about waste.

When implementing sustainability initiatives, it's important to do the best you can with your circumstances. As the Zero Waste Chef says: We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.