Warning over calls to ban disposable takeaway coffee cups
Calls to ban disposable takeaway coffee cups in New South Wales have been met with a warning by café owners who say the change would add additional costs as they battle soaring bills and rising interest rates, and see the cost of barista coffee soar even further.
The NSW government proposal is aimed at phasing out disposable takeaway coffee cups that cannot be recycled, rather than banning all disposable takeaway cups.
Calls to ban disposable takeaway coffee cups in New South Wales have been slammed by café owners. iStock
Paul Nicolaou, Executive Director of Business Sydney, a division of Business NSW representing commercial, retail, hospitality, and corporate organisations operating across the Greater Sydney metropolitan area, told nine.com.au they are opposing the ban, and the timeline set out by the Government.
“A lot of these businesses at the moment are struggling,” he said. “The last thing they need is more red tape, more requirements to run their businesses, and they just haven’t got the time.”
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‘A lot of these businesses at the moment are struggling.’ iStock
‘The last thing they need is more red tape.’ iStock
Penny Sharpe, Minister for the Environment in New South Wales, says the plan has been in the works and in consultation for three years.
“The Bill doesn’t ban single-use coffee cups. It says by 2028 they must be recyclable for your yellow bin.
“Small businesses will be exempt from the requirements to offer a reusable cup or mug. The Bill allows a cafe to refuse to take dirty cups. We will trial the reusable cup schemes on NSW Government premises and establish a reuse precinct in the Sydney CBD.
“The regulations will be developed closely with small businesses.”
The five-year road map for problematic plastics
The proposed transition operates under the framework of the Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 (NSW) and its updated implementation strategy, Plastics Plan 2.0 (also titled NSW Plastics: The Next Steps).
Together, they seek to phase out a range of single-use, problematic plastic items over a five-year timeline, ranging from lightweight plastic bags and cutlery to plastic-lined takeaway packaging and microbeads.
phase out a range of single-use, problematic plastic items over a five-year timeline. Getty
Under the plan, single-use takeaway coffee cups will remain available, but within the next few years, all cups must be fully recyclable, allowing consumers to dispose of them in yellow kerbside recycling bins rather than red landfill bins.
Addressing concerns from café owners regarding hygiene liabilities, nine.com.au understands that venues can already reject customer-provided cups on public health grounds if they are dirty or unsafe, and this protection will remain unchanged.
Environmental campaigners back transition
Jeff Angel, Director of the Total Environment Centre and Founder of the Boomerang Alliance, strongly backed the proposed transition away from plastic linings, emphasising the long-term impact of single-use packaging.
“We know plastic lasts in the environment for decades or hundreds of years, contaminating the environment, killing marine life, and ultimately breaks up into microplastics, which are now being found in every human,” Angel told nine.com.au.
“It’s the sort of thing we’ve long needed to take control of. New South Wales is not really the first state. South Australia has had this system in place since 2024.”
All of the concerns being brought up by the café industry and the Liberal opposition have been solved. iStockphoto
He said hundreds of cafés in are already offering reusable cups and filling consumers reusable cups. iStock
He cites the Barangaroo reusable coffee cup precinct trial (officially known as the Borrow by Huskee scheme) as a potential solution.
This Australian first precinct allows customers order a takeaway drink at participating precinct cafes using a special QR-coded reusable Huskee cup via the Borrow by Huskee app. The cup is free to borrow for up to 14 days.
Instead of individual cafés having to wash customer cups in crowded kitchens, which is a key concern raised by business groups, returned cups are collected from the precinct stations and sent to a centralised, professional sanitation facility (WashHub in St Peters) before being recirculated back to venue counters.
The Barangaroo trial in Sydney is underway and is accessible via an app. Supplied
He said initiatives like this should nullify “practical objections or the scare campaign” against the proposed changes.
Industry groups warn of soaring costs
Paul Nicolaou, Executive Director of Business Sydney, warned that forcing packaging overhauls during a cost-of-living crisis threatens small hospitality venues already operating on paper-thin margins.
“The costs of coffee’s gone up, the cost of energy’s gone up, insurance, petrol, delivery costs ... A lot of these businesses, at the moment, are struggling. The last thing they need is more red tape, more requirements to run their businesses, and they just haven’t got the time,” he told nine.com.au.
‘Small, medium-sized cafés, restaurants that serve coffee in coffee cups are struggling.’ Getty Images
‘A lot of these businesses have seen a drop in their business because of the drop in discretionary spend.’ iStock
Of the proposal to replace non-recyclable disposable takeaway coffee cups with those that can be recycled, Nicolaou says this too will come at a cost to businesses.
“A lot of cafés [have] bought quantities of cups that they’ve got to use.”
And until initiatives like Barangaroo’s reusable coffee cup station can scale to a point they can be accessed by all small businesses, it is cafés that will continue to carry the burden of reusable coffee cup use.
“Even if you’ve got reusable ones, someone’s got to clean them.
“There are all these issues that the government, because none of them have had to run a coffee shop, don’t understand. It’s frustrating.”
He feels the Government’s consultation process hasn’t been adequate.
“I didn’t get a phone call. I can tell you a lot of coffee shops haven’t had a phone call or had a meeting with the Minister or the appropriate people at the EPA.
“We’ve just got to draw the line, stop with all this regulation and red tape. Let’s just get businesses surviving this current crisis or this current climate, and let’s think about it down the track.
‘But this is why we’ve just got to draw the line, stop with all this regulation and red tape.’ iStockphoto
“Some of the things that the governments are doing, both federal, state, and local, are really just having such a huge impact on businesses. And I have people who are saying, ‘You know what? I’m giving up. I’m shutting the shop.’
“And who’s going to pay for it when your $4.50 or $5 coffee is going to go to $5.20 or $5.30.”
