Taupō’s Sip in a New Direction

• Coffee
• Cup Cycling
• Made in Taupo
• OneCup
• Recycling

Remember those days when spotting a piece of rubbish wasn’t an every minute occurrence?

When a visit to the recycling depot was a monthly excursion and pumice and stones were what you took home after a trip to the lake front? Many Kiwis will. However, with litter problems escalating countrywide, it’s not about sitting back and remembering days of old, but confronting our wastage with new long-term measures to ensure a greener future.

We spoke to the ninetyblack team who are coalescing with the Taupō District Council to introduce a new environmental initiative and loyalty programme to Taupō – OneCup. Brewing the new, expressing a little of the old and adding a sprinkle of incentives for local businesses, this reusable takeaway coffee cup directive is destined for great things. From reducing New Zealand’s landfill waste, creating improved sustainable and long-term cup cycling within the community, and enabling Partner Cafés to attract and retain new customers.

Let’s lift the lid on a few cup truths and take closer inspection of what OneCup’s set to serve…

The problem

Our thirst for drinks on the run results in over 295 million takeaway coffee cups falling to landfill every year in New Zealand. However, it’s not just landfills suffering cup overload, our waterways are choking on our throwaways, with accumulated plastic damaging our marine ecosystem and becoming part of the marine food chain.

However, replacing all plastic with compostable cups isn’t the answer to protecting our environment either. After all, the majority of compostable vessels still end up in landfills due to a lack of available compostable rubbish bins in New Zealand.

And, not all problems are remedied by destroying takeaway cups altogether and forcing customers to bring their own to cafés. Why? Not only are BYO mugs or cups larger to hike around, it’s easy to forget them when dashing out the door. Let’s be fair, putting all responsibility on the customer isn’t a viable long-term plan-of-attack either.

Meet the solution: OneCup

Starting up in Taupō in March, OneCup is a green initiative and environmentally friendly loyalty programme, operated by a simple deposit system.

Serving up a district-wide cup cycling venture to combat single-cup use, may be just the long-term green solution we are all – cafés and customers – in want of, enthuses Taupō Mayor, David Trewavas.

“Projects like this help people get more engaged, help increase awareness of the issues, and ultimately reduce the amount of waste we send to landfills,” he says.

“We all have a part in looking after the place we love and this great initiative will give us all a quick and easy way to do our bit and minimise the environmental footprint in our community. As a council, one of our key aims is ensuring our rubbish and recycling is managed in a safe, efficient and sustainable way as we head towards becoming the most liveable and prosperous district in the North Island by 2022.”