Page 1736 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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With this in mind, we introduced the Actsmart straws suck campaign in June 2018. The campaign encourages Canberra businesses and their patrons to rethink their use of single-use plastic straws and reduce the ACT’s contribution to the estimated 10 million plastic straws used in Australia every single day. There are currently 33 businesses signed up to the campaign, and community members can sign up to this pledge as part of the Actsmart online carbon challenge.
Of course, we understand that straws make up a small percentage of the plastic waste problem. However, this campaign was designed to open up the opportunity for conversation about all single-use items, including disposable coffee cups, with community members and local businesses. Australians consume more than 50,000 cups of coffee every half hour and use an estimated one billion disposable coffee cups each year. To use what is a tried and true measurement, if all these cups were lined up they would stretch around the world twice. And that is just the Australian use of these cups.
There are many issues regarding disposable coffee cups. They make up a significant portion of polluting litter in the environment. They, of course, require energy and water to create, and there is a lot of confusion regarding their recyclability. Here in the ACT our materials recovery facility, or the MRF, accepts coffee cups for recycling. That puts us at the better end of the spectrum. However, it is obviously a much better option to avoid them altogether.
There are many ways to encourage businesses and consumers to reconsider their use of disposable coffee cups. What we know—and I am sure we have all seen these experiences—is that many consumers are already using re-usable coffee cups, with some cafes and shops providing a discount to those consumers. I particularly acknowledge those businesses who have really taken that initiative by themselves and started to make that individual change.
As Ms Orr has referred to, one particular cafe, Frankies at Forde, have gone as far as removing all disposable coffee cups from their business, which demonstrates a willingness by Canberrans and businesses to support and adopt environmentally friendly practices. For members of the Assembly, I also note the local version across the square at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, where they have a similar practice with their cup library. I encourage members of this place to avail themselves of that opportunity and those of some of the other places around town that offer discounts for bringing your own cup. As a non-coffee drinker, I feel singularly unqualified to provide any specific advice, but I am assured that there are a number that are quite close to the Assembly.
As Ms Orr has touched on, there are a number of other projects around the world that are seeking to address this issue. Freiberg in Germany launched the Freiberg cup project in 2016, which saw businesses participate in a voluntary scheme of re-usable cups under a deposit paid by the customer. Anyone who read yesterday’s Canberra Times will have seen a similar project being run here in Australia through Green Caffeen.
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