New Zealand is in a pickle of a jam when it comes to waste and climate emissions, and the public are rightly concerned about it. New Zealand isn’t alone – the global ‘take-make-dispose’ linear economy is breaching all kinds of planetary boundaries, leaving resource depletion, pollution, biodiversity loss and global warming in its wake.
It’s obvious that the way we produce and consume stuff has to change, to reduce our insatiable, unsustainable demand on the planet’s resources.
One of the big system shifts we need is to move from throwaway mode towards choosing reuse instead. Here in Aotearoa, one organisation pushing for this shift to reuse is Takeaway Throwaways.Launched in February 2020, Takeaway Throwaways advocates for all single-use food and drink serviceware to be replaced with accessible reuse systems, across the country. The organisation was founded by everyday New Zealanders – myself and my partner, Liam (we also run a zero waste project called The Rubbish Trip), and Laura Cope, who also runs the Use Your Own Cafe Directory. You can read more about the Takeaway Throwaways team on our website.
We’re heading to Parliament!
On 12 May 2022, the Takeaway Throwaways petition will be delivered to Parliament, and we need your help!
Takeaway Throwaways is petitioning the Government to ban a greater range of single-use serviceware, and to do this while also requiring and investing in reusable serviceware systems.
Both parts of the petition are equally important. The single-use option must be taken away to give reuse the space to grow, but it’s not enough just to ban things, the reusable alternative also needs to be supported by Government, through targeted policy, regulations, and investment.
Why reuse?
We set up Takeaway Throwaways because we know that effective reuse systems will do more to reduce waste, plastic pollution and emissions than trying to recycle, compost or landfill an endless stream of disposable cups and containers.
As time goes on, we have become increasingly aware of the potential toxicity of some single-use serviceware, and the global lack of regulation to ensure packaging is free of harmful chemicals. This has only strengthened our call to replace throwaway items with non-toxic reusables that work for all people.
And it’s not just us having these revelations – increasingly, those working within the hospitality and events sectors recognise the urgency of ditching disposables and embracing reuse. For example, owner-operator of Tuatua Cafe on the Wellington Waterfront, Simon Edmonds, ditched single-use cups in 2020 after “trying all sorts of incentives to encourage customers to opt not to use throwaways.”
“In the end, the voluntary approach was just taking too long and we were still going through so many throwaway cups, so it was actually a relief just to make the call to stop offering disposable cups.
“I was pleasantly surprised how quickly customers adapted. Mostly customers that asked for takeaway expecting single-use just decided to sit down and have their coffee in a cafe cup, or use one of the mugs from our mug library.
“While I was willing to take the risk to stop using disposables, and to take the time to build up our mug library, we know things would move much faster cross the hospitality industry if the Government were to signal a ban was coming, and start investing in reuse systems, like the Takeaway Throwaway petition calls for.
“I also think the time is right for a move like this – people’s tolerance of single use cups and other disposable takeaway packaging is very close to a tipping point. Businesses also want alternatives. A handful of cafes like ours are starting to tip the scales, but we could move much faster with Government backing to get us to the reuse future.” – Simon Edmond, Tuatua cafe
Next Thursday we are delivering our petition to Parliament. Hon David Parker, the Minister in charge of waste, has accepted our invitation to receive the petition. The petition is open for signatures up until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 11 May 2022!
As I write, the petition has received just over 5,000 signatures. We are so stoked! This is already a persuasive number – many policy and law changes have gotten over the line with far fewer signatures.
But, of course, we’d still love more people to sign on, to show the Government how much support exists here in Aotearoa for the reuse revolution! You can help us out by signing the petition, and sharing it with your friends and followers to sign too.
The campaign so far
In addition to our petition, Takeaway Throwaways is working away to support the shift from single-use to reuse, wherever we can, from the grassroots right up to the system level. Our small and mighty team is committed to championing reuse and making it easier for hospo, events and festivals, institutions and everyday humans to ditch single-use. Here are some of the things we’ve worked on in the last two years:
- Gathering over 5,000 signatures from humans across Aotearoa, and countless shares of the #TakeawayThrowaways hashtag and our petition QR-code across social media and in real life posters in cafes, reuse and recycle centres, shops and more!
- Putting together an ever-growing inventory of existing local and international reuse schemes for serviceware, to show that not only is it POSSIBLE to do takeaways without the throwaways, it’s already happening all over the world.
- Creating comprehensive guides and videos to explain how to do reuse safely under alert levels three and two – featuring our mate Benny demonstrating the famous “contactless pour”!
- Producing user-friendly resources to help the public make a submission on the Government’s 2020 proposal to phase-out a range of single-use plastic items. Support for the proposals was overwhelming. The Government has since confirmed the proposals will become law later this year – success! Not only that, but the public call to include disposable coffee cups in the ban was so huge that the Government has set up a sector expert group to work on how to do this.
- Getting our campaign featured in print, radio and television media outlets to raise awareness about the need to replace single-use with reuse.
- Cajouling brands, businesses (including fast food chains), and Government to ditch single-use by giving waaaay more love to reuse systems.
- Amplifying #UseYourOwnCupDay and #UseYourOwnCupFriday alongside supporting hospitality outlets across Aotearoa (including the entire Wellington Waterfront!) to trial days without single-use coffee cups, and to set up mug libraries as a reusable alternative.
- Advising events on going 100% reusable and 0% disposable when it comes to food and drink service ware. For example, Revive Festival. So far, these events have all been cancelled because of the uncertainty of covid restrictions, so they haven’t yet had a chance to put the planned reuse systems into practice, but all the event operators are still committed to going 100% reusable when they are able to run their events again.
- Coordinating Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington’s 2022 initiative to phase-out disposable coffee cups on campus.
- Peer-reviewing and/or contributing to international reports or guidelines on reusable serviceware, such as the Sustainable Event Alliance Global Best Practice Guidelines for ‘Reusables’ Hygiene at Events, and UPSTREAM’s Reuse Wins report.
- Sharing vital information and research on important topics, like the relationship between single-use serviceware and climate change, and the potential toxicity of compostable serviceware.
Thank you for your support for #ReuseNotSingleUse If you haven’t already, we’d love you to follow us on social media (Facebook or Insta), check out our petition, or even share a post with the #TakeawayThrowaways hashtag and petition link, like these amazing humans below.
