“No cup, no coffee” – Dublin café’s bold move
A Dublin coffee shop has taken a drastic step in order to do its part in the race against waste: unless a customer has their own reusable cup, they will be refused a takeaway coffee.
Print26 November 2019
A cafe in Dublin city centre – Bread 41 on Pearse Street – has taken the admirable decision to curb its own usage of non-recyclable coffee cups. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of these cups are sold in Ireland every day, many of which end up in landfill.
Every Monday, if a customer in Bread 41 fails to present their own reusable coffee cup, they will be refused sale of a takeaway coffee. It’s that simple. Owner Eoin Cluskey says the experiment has been a success and by early next year “every day will be like a Monday”.
“On a Monday, if you don’t have a keep cup you don’t get a coffee,” he says.
“I know that sounds a bit extreme,” Cluskey told The Irish Times, “but we are in week five and have had a great response so far.”
Cluskey said that before he introduced Keep Cup Monday, he was selling around 180 takeaway coffees on a Monday. The number fell initially with the new rule, but eventually climbed back up when customers caught on to the reason for it.
“Unless somebody does something, nothing gets done,” he said, “and that is why by the end of February we are hoping that every day will be like Mondays and you won’t be able to get a single use cup in our shop. Reusable is the only way to go.”
It’s an admirable move; will other businesses catch on and make a similar move?
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