Together we can have coffee without waste.
The reason I started CopyCup was because in school we were learning about waste. We did biographies on Greta Thurnberg, watched War on Waste, 2040 (movie) and learnt about Molly Steer’s campaign on single-use straws. That was my inspiration. Molly was around the same age as me when she started her campaign and Greta wasn’t that much older. I thought if Molly and Greta could make such a difference, then my voice could count too. I knew I had to do something to help our planet and protect our futures. That is how CopyCup started.
The name CopyCup was chosen because we found out the reason people might change their habits when buying coffee. It wasn’t because of the possibility of a discount; it was because other people were doing it. This is where you come in. You can be the trend-setter that starts other people copying you when you use your reusable cup and refuse to contribute to single-use cup waste.
We know it is hard, but you can do it, one reusable cup at a time. Join the movement. Take action today!
A little about me...
My name is Tarragon and I am 14 years old. I live in Melbourne with my family of five. I enjoy dancing, playing cello and acting. I walk my dogs along the local creek lands and read in copious amounts. I started this campaign when I was 10 to combat the excesses of waste that has been normalised in my community. As the middle child, I am all about world peace, justice and creating the future we want for our world. This means not living in a rubbish dump and not exporting our waste to other countries. We don’t need to cause problems; we can be part of the solution. We can do this every day, just through the little things we do. Like using reusable cups.
So, you might think at age 10, I didn't contribute to this problem, and that I am asking everyone else to make the change. But single use cups are used for Bubble Teas, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, and even freshly squeezed juices, smoothies or milkshakes. If I were to have a drink a day in a reusable cup, I would save 365 single-use cups in a year. And that is if I had only one drink.
Imagine if we all only use reusable cups. Pause with me for a minute: visualise yourself, reusable cup in your hand, how good would that feel? And your friends, family or colleagues around you, drinking from their reusable cups. Hold that image. This is where it starts.
The big issue:
Coffee is the second most popular drink in the world. There are about 8 billion people in the world. Even if we assume half don’t drink coffee, and the half that do restrict themselves to one or two a day – we are still talking about 4 to 8 BILLION single use coffee cups a day (or 2,920, 000,000,000 cups) ending up in waste. Yes waste, because the plastic lining in single use cups make them too difficult to recycle. Imagine cup-waste mountain. It is enormous. It doesn’t need to be there at all.
