The problem with Disposable Cups: It's estimated that 500 billion coffee cups are produced globally each year and if they were placed end to end they'd circumnavigate the globe 1360 times! Planet Ark says that about 60,000 kilograms of plastic waste from coffee cups (yes from paper cups lined with plastic) is directed to landfill each year in Australia, where it can take about 50 years to break down.

A better solution is to use long-life cups made from materials that can be recycled back into useful products once they reach end of life. The best and most practical materails for this are: Glass, Ceramics, and Stainless Steel.

The Benefits of Glass:

• Glass is nonporous: no tainting or nasty aftertaste
• No contamination as there can be no chemical interactions with the beverage
• Easy to clean and to re-use
• BPA free and phthalate free
• Glass is made from natural abundant materials, primarily sand
• Glass can be and is recycled in Australia
• Glass is generally transparent and looks good!

The benefits of Ceramic Mugs: they are reusable, taste-neutral, and have a relatively long-life. While they take more energy to produce and wash, they already are ahead of disposable paper cups (which are plastic lined) and disposable styrofoam cups after just 25 uses, according to a Swiss study and pilot project at Basle University in 2013. Ceramic mugs tend to have a life anywhere between 500 and 2000 uses, so over time they lead to significant energy savings, waste reduction and reduced emissions compared to disposables.

Benefits of Stainless Steel for a travel mug or Drink Bottle:
    •    Safe, durable, re-usable, impact resistant, and they look good!
    •    BPA free; no tainting (e.g. plastic), no corrosion (e.g. aluminium), no contamination
    •    Long-life; easy to clean.
    •    Less energy intensive than aluminium, can be fully recycled at end of life.

Note we do not supply Plastic Cups, even if they are BPA free, as they are still plastic and are problematic for the waste-stream. Not enough plastic is geneuinely recycled in Australia to have confidence that once discarded, these cups won't in fact end up in landfill or litter. Most plastic discarded in Australia is not recycled: it ends up in landfill or even pollutes waterways. Marine plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges faced by the world’s oceans. Every year 50 billion plastic cups and 38 billion plastic bottles end up in global landfills.