The Leadership Great South Coast 2017 team launched the Caffeine Dream campaign this week to raise awareness and encourage coffee lovers to change their habits.

Team leader Juanita Dickinson said they were shocked and outraged at what the program, which finished on Tuesday night, had uncovered and hoped the community would be inspired to take action. 

“A staggering 50,000 single-use coffee cups go into landfill every 30 minutes in Australia,” Ms Dickinson said. 

“Single-use coffee cups are thought to be the second-largest contributor to landfill after plastic bottles and it is estimated that in Australia alone we are using one billion of these cups every year.”

The team will visit local cafes, urging them to be a part of the national response and have challenged local cafes to take action and sign on to the ‘Choose to Reuse’ website responsiblecafes.org.

The website identifies cafes that are committed to helping to reduce or eliminate disposable coffee cups by offering a discount for reusable cups.

She said participating cafes could display a ‘Responsible Cafes’ poster, to #BYOcoffeecup and raise awareness on social media. “We have a clear message – we all have a part to play in this. Every cup, every coffee, makes a difference.”

Picollo Coffee Roasters owner Jon Darcy said they went from selling one reusable cup a week to 20 cups in two days this week.

“We’ve got lots of regulars who have got reusable cups but all of a sudden they’ve remembered and dug their cups out from behind their seats or glove box,” Mr Darcy said.

He said offers a 50 cent discount to encourage people to use reusable cups. Cafe Lava offers a 50 cent discount on its 12 ounce cups and a 40 cent discount on its eight ounce cup.  

Brightbird Espresso owner Mark Brightwell began offering a 50 cent discount on Friday as an incentive for people to reuse their cups.