Several on-campus cafes going disposable cup free for Sustainability Week
Get your reusable cups ready, because a number of on-campus cafes will be doing away with disposable cups for all of next week.
The initiative is part of VUWSA’s Sustainability Week, and runs from Monday 10–Friday 14 May.
The following cafes and eateries have pledged to go ‘single-use cup free’, meaning takeaway drinks will only be served in reusable cups:
- Vic Books Kelburn
- Vic Books Pipitea
- Louis’ Cafe
- The Hunter Lounge
- The Lab
- Milk and Honey
Staff are invited to support these cafes and their move away from disposable cups by:
- Remembering to bring your own clean reusable cup for your morning brew, whether it’s a fancy keep cup, an upcycled jar, or just a mug from your kitchenette. Whatever works, just make sure it’s clean!
- Borrowing a mug from the university-wide Auraki–Returnable Cup Scheme. If you do borrow a mug, make sure to return it after you’ve used it.
- Making time to stay and ordering to ‘have here’ in a real cup.
This initiative is being supported by the University’s Auraki–Returnable Cup Scheme, and by external organisations Takeaway Throwaways and Use Your Own Café Directory.
If you’d like to donate some mugs to the Auraki–Returnable Cup Scheme, you can drop them off to the reception desk in the Hunter building during working hours.
New Zealanders go through roughly 295 million disposable coffee cups a year. These cups and their lids are made of a combination of paper (e.g. trees) and plastic (e.g. unsustainable oil). The overwhelming majority go to landfill, where they take up space and break down, which emits methane. However, countless numbers of cups and lids also escape into the natural environment, causing plastic pollution and harm to wildlife.