Zeb White is currently trying to collect 500 coffee mugs. Photo / Paul Taylor
Zeb White is currently trying to collect 500 coffee mugs. Photo / Paul Taylor
A Te Awanga woman is on a mission to collect more than 500 coffee mugs to help keep thousands more disposable coffee cups out of landfills.
Zeb White hopes her new venture, Koha Cups, will encourage people to use takeaway coffee mugs.
The recycled coffee mugs, received as donations or purchased from op shops, will be available at participating cafes for people to use in place of takeaway cups, returning the clean mug on their next visit.
But first she has to collect them.
White said she was inspired by the boomerang bag scheme and thought to apply it to her morning coffee.
She said about 295 million single-use coffee cups are thrown away in New Zealand each year.
While many cafes now stocked paper or even compostable takeaway cups, very few people disposed of them properly, she said.
"Compostable cups are only good if you're going to compost them and it's a very small percentage that do.
"I think eliminating the waste instead of creating it in the first place is my kaupapa."
White's Koha Cups hits all three "R's" - it reduces the amount of landfill waste, the donated mugs are being reused and can be recycled for further use simply by washing them.
She said she already had a few cafes that were keen to be a part of the scheme and estimates she will need about 40 mugs for each.
"I know it's something that can work."
White said it will be an ongoing project, having to top up the collection as mugs disappear or fail to be returned.
"People can bring the cups if they want but there's no pressure to do so."
She will also liaise with the cafes and redistribute the mugs to where they need to be.
