I was referring to The suggestion to discount The Coffee if coming with own cup. Sometimes people don’t realise that The cost of a Coffee Is mainly labour And if you Have to leave your station to rinse a cup…well that is time …
Also i Have been handed cups really gross… Which i think Is lack of respect. Of course Not everyone Is Like this But believe me It’s quite a norm …
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Hi Gipsycook. I think that is really sad that you get handed filthy cups. Not on. And I think you’re right in saying that it is disrespectful. Perhaps you should be able to refuse a filthy cup. It could pose an OH&S risk.
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I think this is a interesting and growing topic.
In Perth I know of one place which refuses to sell takeaway coffee if you don’t have your own cup and several places who give you a ~50c discount if you bring your own cup.
I’m posting because I would like to ask if anyone can suggest some alternatives to Keep Cups. I don’t like Keep Cups’ lack of insulation and their (possibly porous) rubberised overmould which makes the lid even more difficult to clean than it would be plainly by virtue of its shape. I’m aware of several other brands and there are millions of “make your own merchandse” cups around but I haven’t found any that meet my picky requirements.
Here is what I think a good reusable cup should have:
- Secure and well sealed lid.
- Double wall for proper insulation.
- Easy to clean materials and preferrably dishwasher safe.
- Easy to clean shape ie. simple shape with no moulded text or small nooks.
- Few or no endocrine disrupting materials. (meh I’m sure I have bigger things to worry about)
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I have a small thermos that fits all of your criteria; however, I am unsure as to whether it fits under the nozzles for a coffee machine as I make my own drinks at home. Having a twin-walled thermos means you can make a drink and keep it hot for hours so you don’t need to visit the coffee shop.
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Glad to hear that you’ve encountered some places in Perth giving a discount for customers who bring their own cups! I live in coffee central in Sydney and if discounts are given, it’s definitely not obvious when you order.
Check this out: https://rivers.stores.jp/items/575f67f200d33123d40000dd
I traced it back to this website after a colleague returned from Japan with a splendid looking cup that seems to have a much better design than Keep Cups.
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Gosh, I love the conversation this topic has created. Thank you for the link Kalpana. I’ll have a look at it.
I have another suggestion for you regarding reusable cups. Check this site out .
https://www.onyalife.com/product/coffee-cup-regular/
They have lots of other goodies as well. I haven’t tried the cups myself so I can’t vouch for them. They seem to fit the bill though. I’d love to hear from anyone that knows about them.
I have just ordered a drink bottle and some reusable produce bags. Looking forward to getting them.
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Businesses can refuse to use a cup and this does happen often even when a cup is not dirty unfortunately. Here is an article I wrote about what the law says about using reusable containers https://gippslandunwrapped.com/2016/08/18/the-law-using-reusable-containers/
Many people just use mason jars with a lid. I have a Keepcup and insulated travel mugs which I like, but I do prefer to sit in and drink. The research shows most people have finished their coffee within 50 metres of the cafe anyway.
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I found this review article at The Guardian useful in deciding which reusable cup to buy. I got a Joco. I like the Pyrex-type glass - it’s easier to clean than plastic, and doesn’t carry odours. It is probably a bit heavier than plastic though, which doesn’t bother me but might bother some people who are planning to carry it around a lot.
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Fantastic read Tammy. I’ve shared it on facebook for all my friends to read. It has encouraged me to start bringing my own containers to a much bigger range of shopping.
I like that article in The Guardian too, Brett. It’s a shame they didn’t review the pyrex KeepCup. I think it’s much better than the other one.
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I feel terrible every time when I see these cups been used.
Some place even give you disposal cups when you have it in the shop. How ridiculous is that!
We should ban all dispose coffee cups once and for all.
Shops should be forced to charge for disposable cups. All the charges to go to the environment.
Changing habits is hard but we will never protect the environment without tough rules.
Sometime we need no mercy;)
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A McDonalds near where we live, Ipswich Qld, are selling a re-usable cup and as an added bonus on purchase of the cup I think you get a free coffee. When you get it filled it costs you 50 cents less a cup, this may be McDonalds wide I am not sure.
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Here’s a novel idea, why can’t we take our own cups to coffee shops. It would have to be more cost effective to the shops.
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I would love this to become a thing, but with everyone rushing around these days, I’m not so sure a wide-open mug would be people’s first choice.
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Thanks for starting this conversation fem. I was listening to a podcast called Freakonomics this morning which was contesting the economics of re-usable cups versus disposable paper cups. It’s not something I had thought of myself, but the repeated washing of your re-usable cup with hot water and detergent is not a cost that is taken into account.
I’ve not done the math, but which is more important or efficient, the landwaste created when we end up tossing these disposable cups, or the energy resources used for heating water, water itself for cleaning and the chemicals manufactured for washing up liquid that goes into washing up a re-usable cup.
It’s such an interconnected world that every change we make has an impact somewhere else.
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If it was a single item being washed then cost/benefit analysis would probably be in favour of disposable. However when we do our dishwashing we tend to do multiple items which brings the cost (both $ wise and ecology wise) down. The more dishes you wash with in a single wash cycle (whether in a sink or in a dishwasher) the benefit would increase dramatically.
Many times I have seen where they state it is cheaper to do something but it is only cheaper because they cost it for a single item and a single use not multiple items and multiple uses. Sort of like if you put a single driver in a car and say it is very cost inefficient for them to drive to work, and I agree it is, but what if you put 5 people in the car doesn’t it become more cost effective? Or Solar Panels for energy production?
And to add to that what about the production of the disposable cup, it takes a lot of energy, waste material, chemicals, and so on to product each cup and then the unseen pollution once the cup is in the ground, the plastic waterproofing that takes thousands of years to breakdown, the dyes in the cup that leach into the soil and so on it goes.
So yes there are impacts in any way we choose but it would seem that reusing an item multiple times would over time be more cost effective before it had to be disposed of.
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That podcast you listened to, Matt, sounds interesting and it’s great that the discussion is out there. I fail to see their logic though. I think grahroll summed it up nicely.
Most of the time my cup gets put in the dishwasher with the rest of my dishes. I can do this because I have a number of keep cups that I rotate.
I feel that it is really important that we stop using as much in the way of ‘disposable items’ as possible even if it’s just to stop landfill. We need to become a whole lot more mindful in the way we live. Everything we do has a consequence.
Hey everyone, I saw this today and thought of you:
Wonder if this could be a conversation starter with cafes that don’t offer the discount…
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Yeah agreed… my local barista drops 50c for my Daily keep cup indulgence 
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Agree about the coffee pods. They are starting to appear in the environment and waterways.
I don’t support any products specifically made for one use, then throw away.
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