Blog by Chloe O’Malley, Student Officer Undergraduate Education
It’s no surprise that as students we (sometimes) live on caffeine. En esta economia? Yeah, I know. Especially when exam/assignment season rolls around buying coffee or tea again and again and again and again quickly adds up. My bank account learned that the hard way. But if I’ve learned one thing from being a coffee shop regular, it’s this:
A keep cup pays off fast.
Sun Oct 4 marks No Disposable Cup Day, where we are asked to sit in and use a mug, or use our own cups when we order food or drink at a café.
Which sounds easy enough, but in such a busy world those simple swaps go overlooked. So, we live the paper cup life, and where do they end up when we’re done with them? In the (often wrong) bin.
At Queen’s we throw away 45 single use cups per minute, which can rack up to 300,000 per year. And these cups cannot be recycled in a generic bin, nor are they all compostable. Waste sorters can do their best, but ultimately these aren’t recycled to the fullest of their potential.
Don’t worry though, that’s not always the case! There is a single use cup recycling scheme that partners with major food and drink vendors (such as Caffe Nero) meaning their bins, to the best of their ability, become sustainable waste. But that’s not the only sustainable solution… and this one may pique your interest a bit more.
Three words: Reusable cup incentives.
Going for a reusable cup is far from easy (I know). But it has it’s benefits once you make a habit out of it. Take the coffee shops on campus for example:
- Junction offers a small discount/lower price for your takeaway coffee if you bring a keep cup, and they have mugs if you want to sit in!
- Caffe Nero offers a lower price for sit in drinks (in mugs) and if you want to use a keep cup, you will get two stamps on your loyalty card (physical or app)! That means the number of drinks you have to get before you earn a free one is cut in half! Plus, there’s a student discount. Talk about bang for your buck.
- Did you know the Barista Bar in the Union Shop also has a loyalty app? And you get two stamps for a reusable cup? Imagine the stamps you’d rack up.
But that doesn’t make it any easier to get into the habit of bringing a keep cup around, I know. My best advice is find a cup you love. Silly and all as it sounds, I have a specific keep cup that I am very attached to and am happy to carry around because it looks nice. Because of that cup, I honestly don’t mind bringing any keep cup with me, because I’m doing my part to reduce single use waste, and my coffee stays warm for more than 40 or so minutes. Plus, I have the cutest wee mug.
So, this No Disposable Cup Day, I’d really encourage you to consider finding your own keep cup. Yes it’s got an upfront cost, but if you can’t already tell, it pays itself off in the long run. It’s the small things that reduce the stress of the current cost of living.
Find Chloe in the SU Foyer on Mon 5 Oct, where she will be handing out free keep cups to students from 9-10:30am (while stocks last)!
