AOK Today #17 - Keep Cup

AOK Today: Choose to reuse with a keep up

"We do business how we do life - ethically, sustainably and creatively. " - Pottery for the Planet

How It Works: Being born in the late 80s, I still remember being given a styrofoam cup for tea. Styrofoam cups are made from polystyrene, a type of plastic derived from petroleum, which never fully break down - every Styrofoam cup you or anyone else in the world has ever sipped from is still partly in existence, lurking in landfill and releasing methane gases. While styrofoam has stayed in the 90s with my flare jeans (which might be back in fashion!?), most takeaway cups today are still lined with polyethylene to prevent leakage, which makes them unrecyclable. And even when cups are recyclable, they're often disposed of in landfill bins. It's estimated that 5 billion disposable cups end up in landfill a year, which is about 1 million cups a minute, every hour, every day. The antidote? A reusable keep cup!

Cost: $10 - $30 - one off. While there is an upfront financial cost, it might long term save you money if it encourages you to make a tea/coffee at home and take it in your keep cup with you, rather than buy a coffee out.

Why I love it: I adore my pottery for the planet keep cup - it is exceptionally beautiful, feels like valuing the planet, and is literally filled with the love (handmade by two artists and activists drawn together through environmental campaigning in 2006 who have continued to campaign and do life together ever since!). My best mate let me borrow one years ago, while making me a takeaway coffee pre-work, and I bought my own soon after, so really beautiful personal memory of friendship too. I have since started making my own at a local ceramic studio from recycled clay :) I also want to pay respect to the 1998-born KeepCup, credited as saving over a million disposable cups from landfill every day.

Happy Giving |XOX|