Case study: shared mug library

Both Tuckerbox and Wolf Café were already taking steps to reduce the volume of single-use cups going to landfill. Joining the Paddo Cup Project gave them the opportunity to further engage with customers about sustainability and make a collective impact.

The mug library’s beautiful ceramic cups, featuring ‘Visit Paddington’ branding commissioned by the chamber of commerce, quickly gained attention.

At Tuckerbox, customers were already familiar with the in-house mug library, made up of a random selection of quirky cups from the local charity store. Owner James Martin said the Paddo cups provided a more consistent and appealing option for customers who cared about sustainability.

Owner of Wolf Café, Rowena Marsh, described the borrow cups as the perfect addition to conversations the staff were already having with customers. “We often ask people, ‘Do you really need a takeaway cup?’ and ‘Do you need to have a lid on that?’,” she explained. Being able to offer customers a borrow cup “made a real difference”.

“When people pick them up, they say, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re actually really lovely’, and they are!”

Both cafés put the cups front and centre—literally. At Wolf Café, the borrow cups were stacked at the coffee machine near the door, catching the eye of every customer. Tuckerbox displayed them on the window ledge with signage explaining the project.

Customers were curious, asked questions, and commented on how lovely the cups were. It all added up to a positive experience. “The Paddo Cup Project is another way of making someone’s day a little bit more exciting,” James explained. “I mean, coffee’s obviously great for flavour, and we love caffeine, but it’s also nice to have an experience.”

For Tuckerbox regulars, who have daily interactions with café staff, it introduced an extra element to a run-of-the-mill exchange, creating a feeling of community, he said. “It’s nice to get involved with local initiatives.”

Wolf Café is opposite the local primary school and on weekdays it provides a steady stream of customers. Its regular customers, the teaching staff, embraced the project. “The teaching staff have been amazing. They often come and get a takeaway coffee at recess or lunch and now they’re big users of the cups – they can return them at the next break or even the following day.”

The Paddo Cup project was only two weeks old when Butterbox and Wolf Café joined the Reusable Café Project, yet the results were already very promising:

• Tuckerbox estimated it could save $25 a week in packaging costs, based on 100 or so customers using a borrow cup.
• Wolf Café was seeing about 50 customers choose a borrow cup over the week, saving $12.50 week on packaging and supporting behaviour change in returning customers.

Rowena predicts reusables will really take off as more customers engage with the concept, and it creates a flow-on effect. “As people see other people doing it, they will stop to think and realise how many takeaway coffee cups they must go through.”

Prior to the Paddo Cup Project, the team found it was a constant challenge to remind people to bring their reusable. “There are people who will bring them and people who won’t. Encouraging people to keep it up is hard. Anything we can do to help save all this waste going where is going is a positive.”

Changing people’s minds, one cup at a time, can really pay off. James has the perfect example: “A customer of ours has a little macchiato and always gets it in a takeaway cup. He walks around in front of the café talking on the phone and once he has finished it, he comes back and chucks the cup in the bin.”

“One day we just put it in a little reusable borrow cup and gave it to him. He looked at me and laughed. He tried it, came back, and said to me: ‘Wow, that changed my life!’.”