A Warrnambool cafe’s war on waste has saved thousands of single-use coffee cups from going into landfill.
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Picollo Coffee Roasters owner Jon Darcy participated in a regional push last year to reduce single-use coffee cups.
Twelve months on, the cafe’s customers have used 8000 less single-use coffee cups.
He said the figure was pleasing and hoped to continue the momentum.
“I wanted to reiterate the message, to keep it at the front of people’s minds and push on with it,” he said. “It would be great to be ordering less and less cups.”
Mr Darcy said the cafe was committed to the cause and continued to offer customers who brought their own reusable cups or mugs a 50 cent discount.
The Leadership Great South Coast 2017 team launched the Caffeine Dream campaign in June last year to raise awareness and encourage coffee lovers to change their habits.
It came after the ABC aired its War on Waste documentary which highlighted the devastating effect takeaway cups have on the environment.
The program showed how 50,000 single-use coffee cups go into landfill every 30 minutes in Australia.
Mr Darcy said the War on Waste series had kick-started a greater public awareness about sustainability and that every little bit made a difference.
He said awareness and action continued to grow with Victorian supermarkets currently banning single-use plastic bags and there was increased attention on reducing plastic straws and other single-use items.
He said as a business owner he was constantly looking at his operations and packaging in a bid to be more environmentally conscious.
“It’s making us assess everything as we grow to make sure there’s less waste,” Mr Darcy said.
A second season of War on Waste will begin on July 24 with plastic water bottles and e-waste, including laptops and batteries, a focus of the documentaries.