Sip your way to sustainable takeaway

IN the last two months, Green Caffeen has had Bendigo frothing for a sustainable coffee, and this week the movement arrived in Ballarat.

Co-founder Damien Clarke said it’s a simple concept that environmentally-minded coffee drinkers will love.

“Green Caffeen is a swap-and-go reusable coffee cup with the aim of creating a reusable system across Australia. We’re eliminating single-use plastics directly at the source,” he said.

“We give cafés an option to provide a reusable service to their customers, and they can swap-and-go with those cups at any other participating café around Australia.

“We’re completely Australian owned, so it’s all about working with councils and cafés to grow our system, have an impact, and help greater communities to build a reusable culture.”

Mr Clarke said taking away a Green Caffeen cup is just like borrowing a library book.

“We have an app, and you have access to two coffee cups in your phone. Once you check a cup out from a café, you check that cup in within 30 days to avoid any late penalty.

“The aim of that isn’t to make revenue; it’s purely to get people to treat the item with respect and care, so it can do the good it’s designed for, not just sit in the back of the car or in a drawer,” he said.

“The average person that drinks coffee in Australia will consume 500 single-use cups each year.

“That’s seven-and-a-half kilos of single-use plastic going straight to waste or pollution, costing a café between $80 to $120. We want people to realise that problem and imagine their impact.”

Albert Street’s Workshop Café became part of the movement for change earlier this week. Owner Meg Zerafa said Green Caffeen offers a “solution to a lot of our problems.”

“I really like our customers using Keep Cups, but it’s hard for people to always have one on them, especially one that’s clean. That’s been a big issue with COVID,” she said.

“We’re based at the back of the uni, so we have a lot of regular customers, including local businesses. Green Caffeen will work really well for them, and encourage them to use reusable cups more.”

Ms Zerafa hopes all of Ballarat’s cafés and local government will soon be as enthusiastic about the initiative as The Workshop team is.

“If all cafés are taking part, it means the movement is more accessible to customers, and not just ours. If the council can get on board with it too, that would be really good.

“The process of joining Green Caffeen has been so easy and seamless,” she said.

“Now, we’re focusing on educating our customers about how to use it. It’s very simple, and we just need to communicate that because we’ve got all the systems in place to pick it up and run with it.”

Mr Clarke said hundreds of people already use the system in Bendigo, across 30 cafes. Over 1000 people have downloaded the app.

“Some people use it once a day, ten times a day, once a week, or once a month… but the compounding effects on that in two to three years will be massive as far as single-use elimination, and more importantly, landfill and pollution,” he said.

Green Caffeen is an Australian-born start-up, with the aim of keeping cups Australian made, and using them as many times as possible. Once out of the system, the material from the cups will be recycled into more high-quality reusables.

The movement’s team has secured 42 council partnerships across the country. They are encouraging locals to call their favourite coffee spots and municipal office to raise awareness and support of the sustainable system.