Page 1733 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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step forward for our city. But it is important that we offer a tangible proposal for how to implement the policy ambitions.
Across the globe, the German city of Freiburg has pioneered one way to significantly reduce the use of single-use coffee cups. For the cost of just one euro, customers can take their coffee away in a re-usable Freiburg cup. Customers can return their Freiburg cup to participating businesses and get back their one euro. The cups are then washed, disinfected and re-used. These cups can be re-used up to 400 times, after which they are recycled.
This ingenious initiative has drastically reduced Freiburg’s coffee cup waste. The Freiburg cup has been a resounding success. In fact, the scheme has been so effective in reducing waste and so well received by the people of Freiburg that other cities such as Berlin and Munich have now both adopted similar schemes, implementing their own re-usable coffee cup zones.
But the people of Freiburg, Berlin and Munich are not the only pioneers in reducing single-use coffee cups. Here in Canberra several environmentally conscious business owners and managers have now taken steps to reduce their businesses’ plastic waste. Cafes such as Teddy Picker’s in Campbell and Little Oink in Cook have already chosen to make the transition from plastic straws, utensils and food containers to re-usable, recyclable or biodegradable alternatives. These businesses, as well as many others throughout Canberra, now give their customers the choice of taking their coffee away in a single-use cup or in a re-usable one.
Some cafes, such as Little Oink, have even gone a step further offering their customers discounts for using re-usable coffee cups. Little Oink’s owner, Natalie Legg, has said the community response to the change has been overwhelmingly positive and that the extra cost has been well worth it. These changes are extremely encouraging to see, and I strongly commend these businesses on their efforts.
In my electorate of Yerrabi I am proud to say one cafe’s efforts in reducing plastic waste truly stands out. Back in 2017 Frankies at Forde made the decision to stop selling single-use coffee cups altogether. For almost two years now Frankies have only sold their coffee in re-usable cups, eliminating the use of disposable, single-use coffee cups. Now, instead of handing over a disposable coffee cup when someone orders a coffee, the staff at Frankies ask one simple question: do you have time to drink that here?
Frankies owner, Mark, says most people, when they think about it, reply that they do. The need for a disposable cup is gone. For those who cannot take a seat to have their coffee, the staff then explain that Frankies do not have disposable coffee cups. Rather, they have a cup library from which you can grab a re-usable cup; they just ask you to bring it back so that they can wash and re-use it in the future. Mark says that almost everyone is happy with the proposition and only very, very rarely will someone will raise an objection.
How has making this change impacted Frankies’ business? Well, Mark has said that going plastic and single-use free has only improved his business. In fact, he has said,
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