This is a people’s campaign for our planet. Your voice counts.
If you have an opinion to share, a concern to air, a pledge or declaration to make - as an individual, a group, or a business - please submit your words through our contact page. Let us know how to credit you, where, if anywhere, you would like us to link to (a URL or social media account) and we will be in touch before we publish your words. Tell others too? The more inclusion, the more opinions, and the more feedback this campaign receives, the more relevant it becomes. As in all things, working together, listening, and learning from each other, is vital. Thank you, so much.
Saskia Strand-Saseve: Human
“I love this, and am pretty opinionated when it comes to reducing waste and helping papatuanuku. I would be more than proud to live in New Zealand if all single use cups/utensils/containers/bags and any other items of unnecessary and environmentally harmful nature were banned from being in New Zealand. I believe that the @againagainco have something good going, and that they could be translated into all forms of common single use conveniences. For ensuring the disabled community is looked after in all situations, I believe a special form of cup lid/straw can easily be designed, and an anonymous, scannable tag can be sent to disabled members of the community that all vendors of food accept and relay with kindness and understanding. I would definitely still drink takeaway coffee, and I think the opportunity for consumers to design their own cups could really be interesting.
My priorities are waste management and reduction, carbon neutral living, education and caring for animals by supporting them and not consuming them. The end of single use culture would be a bonus to me, as not everyone can afford the fancy reusable containers (even though mine are $6 from kmart) as the knowledge and skills haven't yet been transcribed into every day societal living. Futhermore, I believe the amount of poverty within New Zealand is undeniably our biggest issue.
“To go forth with cutting our waste we must support, educate, feed and home our whānau who are unable to make environmental choices as they are only just scraping by.”
The government and supermarkets must take into consideration how difficult impoverished families would find it to move out of a routine that they are only just managing to live by, and therefore needs to take into account the Māori and Pacific island communities ways of reducing waste to help translate more easily into impoverished communities without the feeling of corruption and non-empathetic government propaganda”.
Kate Hall: Concerned Citizen
“It's about time. Aotearoa's goals of going carbon neutral by 2050 need to involve action NOW, and this is a really simple step to begin aligning our actions with our goals. The plastic bag ban was hilarious to watch: most people had a hissy-fit, then a second later they got over themselves. I think the same will happen with single-use packaging, but the hissy-fit may be a bigger one. As someone who has taken their own containers to eating-out spots for the past few years, I know it's 100% doable for all of New Zealand to do it with me. It will be interesting to see how the likes of McDonald's change their fast systems in the kitchen to include reusables, but like I said: it's crucial, and totally achievable. We didn't have this type of convenience 60 years ago! So, what's the harm?
I'm very happy to hear the single-use ban will include ALL single-use, no matter what it is made from. Even though something is compostable, it still took resources and energy to create, and may not end up breaking down in the right conditions anyway. Compostable has as place in some areas, but not for single-use. Single-use is such a weird concept when you wrap your head around it! What were us humans thinking?”
Mell Anderson: Cartel HQ
We have been single use free since August 2019. It's really sparked up conversations with our customers when we were transitioning, 95% of people we so supportive and positive - who would think it was a bad move right! We are super passionate about being the first in Hawkes Bay and my drive is helping other business make it work, by sharing experience from the cafe and customers perspectives. We are learning as we go - and it's not even that hard!
It's a feel good factor when we think we have approximately saved 12000 cups going to land fill in our short time doing it!
We have saved around 4.5k in the last 6 months obviously we invested back into our boomerang cups but it's a saving and space saving also.
Our customer are incredible, we have also supplied a local government agency with 480 cups so each of there staff now have their own cups! They are waste free, movements like this encourage smaller businesses and the public to make it the new normal.
Rachael Maiden: Zane’s Mum
“When the day finally arrives that the government bans single use service ware (and I feel it will come) such as straws,coffee, smoothie cups, napkins, takeaway boxes, will I as a mother of a two year old be up in arms? Will I be unable to come to terms with this disruption to convenience. In our house there will barely be a flicker at the change (well other than the happiness for our planet) not because I avoid café life but because it needs to happen.
As Mothers the popular narrative is that we are so time poor that we need these trappings of convenience, how could I possibly cope if I had to remember our own cups for a drink or a plastic spoon for an ice cream treat, as well as parenting our children. But the reality is so far removed from this. Mothers are legends at being prepared, they have purses and nappy bags full of every possible thing that we could ever need.
Need a napkin, got it, a straw, check in the side compartment. One of my earliest memories of my mother’s hand bag was that she always carried a wet facecloth in an old bread bag, forgoing the need for wipes or napkins. So will mothers cope? Of course we will (as will Fathers, grandparents and those fabulous souls who care for other’s children). If it no longer exists we will work around it. We coped when plastic supermarket bags were removed we will cope when we have to bring our own coffee cup or takeaway container.
But what about the children? How will they manage without a straw? Oh the cups that will be broken if we bring them fluffies in a real cup. What they will learn is, they are capable, children rise to what is expected of them, treat them with the dignity that they can manage and they will. I’m not saying there won’t be the odd broken cup or upset over using metal utensils but that is life with little people, never plain sailing but certainly never boring.
“Teaching children to reject single use is vital, they are the ones who have to live here much longer than us. It is their future that we are taking away with our desire for convenience. ”
How we teach them is simple, we teach them with our behaviour because they are constantly watching, every time you bring a reusable container, every time you refuse a plastic straw, every time you fill a reusable water bottle, it is stored away until it is their normal and to do differently would be odd. So if we want to break the cycle of a disposable lifestyle it’s with teaching the children we should start.
For some change is difficult and often a more softly softly approach is preferred to give people the chance to gradually get on board better than offending people. But this will just teach another generation that single use is not the end of the world (or though potentially it is).
Rip the plaster off, many will moan but eventually we will get on with things and forget there was another way”.
Clinton Chambers: Cafe Owner
“Are we being robbed as a society of our convenience? The supermarket checkout screams at you to remember your reusable bag, can’t get a straw with your gin and tonic, you can’t even buy bottled water at a festival anymore – no matter how thirsty you are! And now they want to stop us having our coffee in takeaway paper cups, what is the world coming too………………
Maybe it isn’t the world, maybe it’s us humans who have become so fixated on our busy lives and ‘getting more’ out of life we’ve taken too much for granted. Years of naivety, years of no infrastructure to support our inefficiencies, and years of just not caring where our waste goes?
Rubbish……isn’t that someone’s else’s problem? Well here’s a wake up call, apparently not, rubbish has now become a PROBLEM for all of us!
It is estimated we guzzle our way through 295 million cups of takeaway coffee a year. Most can't be recycled and end up in landfill. New Zealanders have been seeking instant gratification and convenience for coffee since the 1890s. We don’t need to go into detail on here as to how this throwaway culture has affected our environment, there’s plenty of that on the internet.
Is there a simple solution? Well actually there is, and it starts with every one of us, we just need to slow down a bit and take that moment to think about our everyday choices especially the ones when it comes to consumerism. Do I need that coffee today? Sure I do, have I got my cup with me? Do I need to go to the grocery store today? Sure I do have I got my shopping bags in the car? Will I get thirsty today? Sure I will, have I got my refillable water bottle with me? Every day we make around 35,000 decisions. Today, you have one extra decision to make. Do I choose convenience, or do I choose the future?
“Takeaway coffee cups are but a small portion of the bigger issue that is our throwaway society, but if we don’t start somewhere we are going to get nowhere.”
At Taste Nature we want the best for our planet, from soil to plate and we want the best for your body, from child to adult. Everything we consume has an impact whether good or bad in the supply chain, as consumers we have the power to influence these impacts and bring about a positive outcome for our planet and our community.
ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE BIT OF MINDFULNESS IN DECISION MAKING EVERYDAY
See you at Taste Nature with your refillable container and your own coffee cup”.
Grace: Eden Cafe At Otago Poly
This is the first job in 10 years of hospitality work that I feel has the same values as I do - coming to work every day knowing that we as a cafe are making a difference in the world is amazing. I get to pour beautiful coffees into all kinds of cups, jars, mugs and hardly ever have to put a lid on them which definitely made me work on my latte art. We've saved roughly $20,000 over the last 4 years by not purchasing disposable cups. Our customers absolutely adore the team - not just because we make great coffee but we also have great banter, music, and atmosphere - we also have memorized nearly 90% of their names and coffee orders. OP has a real sense of community and it's such a positive place to work - one that's always looking for new ways to become more sustainable.
Here you can read multiple responses from a social media questionnaire: How would you feel if there were no throwaway cups at all in Aotearoa New Zealand? What alternatives appeal to you? How could we ensure whatever stepped up to fill the void would be inclusive? Would you still drink take out coffee? What are your priorities? Convenience? The end of single use culture?