Jam Espresso at UniSC Arena has gone single-use-cup free, introducing a reusable deposit-return system that is already preventing hundreds of cups from entering landfill.
The cafe serves UniSC athletes, academics, students, tenants and visitors, and is open to the public – meaning the change impacts thousands of people moving through the precinct each week.
“There were a few factors behind this change to a single-use-cup free environment, which involved a holistic approach,” owner and operator Melanie Gosling said.
Under the new system, customers can choose to dine-in using ceramic cups, bring their own reusable cup, or opt for the Good Cup System.
“When they choose a Good Cup, they are charged an extra $3 for the use of the cup, when they bring the cup back, they can either order another coffee with a fresh cup or get their $3 returned,” Ms Gosling said.
The cafe has reusable cup sizes up to 475ml, covering all hot and iced drinks.
Customer response has been positive, following a six-week lead-in period before the system was fully introduced.
“We saved 150 cups from landfill in the first full day of trade,” Ms Gosling said.
“It was so satisfying and exciting to share with the customers that didn’t really know their impact.”
Ms Gosling believes the model could be widely adopted across the Sunshine Coast.
“I wholeheartedly do,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s just for cafes – smoothie, juice and bubble tea bars could adopt this practice and save even more cups from waste.”
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She said Jam Espresso had already been using compostable and recyclable cups, but internal data showed frequent customers were contributing multiple cups per day to waste streams that were difficult to track.
“As these customers were taking their cups away, it was difficult to track whether the cups were getting recycled, composted or just contributing to landfill,” she said.
Ms Gosling said previous borrow-cup systems had not worked for her mobile coffee business due to customer concerns around apps and credit card deposits, making affordability and simplicity key considerations.
She also raised health concerns around aqueous-lined cups.
“As the UniSC Arena is also the home of nutrition, dietetics, high performance athletes and health-conscious customers, we wanted to steer away from single-use-cups that had an aqueous lining as they still contain synthetic polymers and chemical additives,” she said.
