Choose to Reuse Campaign 

July is Plastic Free July month. The SEE Change WasteLess group is running a Choose to Reuse campaign, inviting Canberrans to replace single-use cups with reusable cups during July 2025. Australians use 1.84 billion single-use cups for coffee, tea and hot chocolate in a year, with nearly all going to landfill. Such a waste of resources! 

You are invited to take your reusable cup into a variety of cafes during July and ask them to provide your hot drink in your reusable cup. Hopefully, they comply and fill up your cup without any questions asked. They may refuse, but at least you have communicated that using a reusable cup is important to you – you could walk out so as to avoid a single-use cup. Aim to do this for ten different cafes during July to maximise your impact. 

Please tell us about your experience. The WasteLess group intends to publish a list of cafes that allow you to bring your own cup at the end of July. Email wasteless@seechange.org,au and tell us the name of the café, address and whether or not they allowed you to use your own reusable cup. 

If you want to encourage a café that supports bringing your own reusable cup, you could print out this poster and cafe handout and give them to the café. The poster is designed to be displayed by the café and promotes their support of reusable cups during Plastic Free July. The handout provides more information about other reusable options. 

The Choose to Reuse campaign is being organised as part of Plastic Free July. Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution.  

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

But I don’t ever use a single-use cup? 

Congratulations on not contributing to single-use cups going into landfill. During the month of July, we are inviting you to encourage reducing single-use cups by taking your reusable cup into as many cafes as possible. The more that cafes see that people want reusable options, the more likely it is that they will support reusables.  

Isn’t my single-use cup recyclable? 

There is great confusion in Canberra on where to place single-use cups. ACT Government previously advised that single-use cups be placed in the recycling bin. However, the ACT Government now requires that single-use cups be placed in the landfill (red) bin. All single-use cups end up in landfill or worse as litter across the landscape. 

Aren’t single-use cups made of paper? 

Many single-use cups are made of paper. However, they have a plastic lining on the inside of the cup, designed to hold the liquid contents. Without that plastic lining, the liquid would simply soak through the paper. The plastic lining means that single-use cups must be placed in the landfill bin. 

My coffee shop doesn’t offer reusable options. What do I do? 

Next time you are in the shop, present them with your reusable cup. If that confirms that they don’t allow you to use your reusable cup, then ask if they have any plans to allow reusable cups. Have a look at other coffee shops in the same area to find one that offers a reusable option. You could politely tell your old coffee shop that you have switched cafes as they did provide a reusable option. 

Why replace single-use cups? 

  1. Single-use cups are not recyclable 

  2. Single-use cups are not compostable  

  3. Single-use cups take vast amounts of water, paper and energy to make (& emit tonnes of methane and CO2) 

  4. Your favourite cafe spends thousands of dollars every year on single-use cups (which makes your coffee more expensive) 

  5. The ACT Government spends millions of dollars cleaning up the mess from single-use packaging  

Isn’t using a dine-in cup better than using your own reusable cup? 

A crockery dine-in cup is a reusable cup just like your own reusable cup. Hence, it is just as good as using your own reusable cup. In some ways it is better as you don’t have to remember to take your own cup. However, during July 2025, we are inviting people to use their own reusable cup to see how many Canberra cafes actively support people bringing their own reusable cups. 

However, a single-use dine-in cup is much worse than using a reusable cup for all the reasons described above.  

I don’t have a reusable cup. Where can I buy one? 

Reusable cups can be bought online, some cafes, kitchenware stores and major retail chains. Reusable cups can be made from a variety of materials, including plastic, glass, pottery or stainless steel.