What's better than recycling? Reusing.Taking Away shouldn't require Throwing Away.

In September 2016 Cardiff Metropolitan University catering decided to launch a reusable coffee cup for their new semester intake of 8,000 students and staff.

"We'd been giving the concept serious thought for some time" said Head of Catering Andrew Phelps" " We're aware of our environmental obligations and the principle of reusability has worked well for us with our customised Hydrachill Water Refilling Stations and reusable water bottles. It was a natural extension to consider reusable coffee cups but we'd never found a solution sufficiently cost or design viable".

"The options were expensive, usually sourced from overseas and limited in their finished printing format to sufficiently represent our brand. Printing a heat-band is fine but we wanted to get our message across in a much more detailed fashion. The Reusable Cups offered us just that facility and more, with full colour reprint capability allowing more room for our symbols, instructions and message - and in two languages, including Welsh!"

So Cardiff Met catering set about designing their graphics on the Reusable Mugs templates provided, accommodating Welsh on one side, English on the other. "We concluded we could re-sell the reusable cups at an affordable 3.50, with a free cup of coffee on purchase and 10% discount for re-use. The effect has been dramatic. Within three months we had used so much of our original stock that we ordered more. The fact that students and staff have adapted so readily, shows how the issue is one that strikes a modern chord".

"Both our neighbouring Universities have witnessed this development and have now followed suit. It works for all, the customer, our sustainability objectives and environment included."

Across the UK and Ireland, more and more businesses and individuals are taking steps to reduce waste, minimise their carbon footprint and tackle climate change.

You don’t have to look far to see these changes. See how your neighbours now separates their waste into plastic, paper, metal and food compost bags or bins. Or how your local bar now no longer serves plastic straws, or the cycle-to-work or car-share scheme that your company has just introduced.

All these small changes add-up to create a bigger impact, and the wider community is taking note. Thomastown in County Kilkenny, Ireland for example, came together as a community to spread awareness of the benefits of using reusable cups, and created an inspiring competition to help highlight this.

The competition set out to design a limited-edition reusable cup that promotes Thomastown. The winning mug design would then be sold in local shops and cafes throughout the community.

Thomastown Community Network (TCN) created the competition inspired by The Conscious Cup Campaign, which estimated that over 200 million non-recyclable cups are thrown away in Ireland every year. It was clear from a previous local events that many visitors didn’t understand the main differences between disposable and reusable cups.

A number of businesses joined in, offering prizes, from local restaurant vouchers to acting classes There were over 100 designs submitted and the winning design for the first round of limited edition cups was a Japanese wood block print by local artist Debra Bowden.

The cups are on sale for $5 and project coordinator at TCN Lisa Karkut believes the cups will encourage coffee drinkers to get into the habit of bringing their own reusable cups instead of using disposable ones. In the process customers can save themselves money from the discounts offered by local businesses to those who bring their own cups.

NDA Packaging Services were delighted to have been a part of this. We accepted the challenge, helped and advised TCN on the graphics design process and reproduced the complex winning design, using the In Mould Label (IML) process.

As a reusable packaging business, we are proud to be a part of something that helps create awareness of disposable waste and makes a positive impact on the locality. We hope the Thomastown project inspires other communities, local authorities and businesses to take similar heed and help make a difference.

Coffee Local was formed out of a chance conversation 8 years ago, with some local people, who said how nice it would be to have a proper coffee shop with homemade produce in our home town of Lydney. With us being in the catering trade for the last 30 years, and looking for a different direction and working for ourselves, we thought why not!!!, 8 years on, here we are. Starting from a small 15 seat unit, we have expanded over the years and taken over 2 units, we now have a 50+ seat coffee shop. We have become known locally as the place to create new friendships & relationships, with our relaxed style, homemade products and great coffee.

Recently having had a refit and freshen up, we wondered what else could we provide for our customers, and also thinking of the environment and feed back from customers the Reusable Takeaway cup cake to mind. Having looked at various companies, with no response for any of them as we are only a small concern, we came across your website. What can we say, your response was fantastic, the speed, the ease from start to finish has been faultless, and the end product is amazing. The feedback from our customers has been just as enthusiastic.

A customer can come into the shop and purchase a cup, which includes there 1st coffee free, then on return to have their cup refilled we give them 25p off any coffee purchased. To say the response has been fantastic is an understatement,  it has been very well received with glowing comments about how well the cup is made, and how well it keeps the coffee hot. On a big plus side it has also reduced our paper Takeaway cup usage, and with some education we are confident we can increase our sales of the reusable cup.

A brilliant decision, one of the better ones we've made over the years. We look forward to dealing with you in the future.