Environment – 16 May 2019

With the change of seasons coming into winter the time has come for a hot drink to warm us up on the brisk wintery days we have here in Melbourne. It’s bean awhile since the weather has been this cold.

Picture this, a cold Melbourne morning on the way to school, the grind of walking to school is boring and mundane. Suddenly you walk past your favourite café smelling the freshly roasted coffee beans in the air, the smell draws you into the store. You realize that you forgot your reusable cup and think It’s just one coffee cup no will notice. You walk into school having finished your hot drink and throw the cup away. But did you know that it takes over 200 years for the cup to fully decompose? And an average of 2 million cups used per day in Australia!

The problem with the coffee cups is the plastic lining inside of the cup. Whilst the lining makes the cup water and heat proof, under normal conventional recycling practices the cups cannot be processed to be recycled with all the other waste.

St Francis Xavier College has partnered with Simply Cups to effectively reduce the environmental impacts that the cups have. By simply placing your used coffee cup with the lid off into the tube the company is able to collect the cups and is easily processed to create new products like outdoor furniture for another lease of life.

I know caring for the environment might not be your cup of tea, this is not an excuse to use the disposable cups we still prefer to use a reusable cup for all of your hot drink cravings.

The collection tubes are located in the canteen and right outside the library entrance. Let’s aim to put all our coffee cups into the tubes.

Last term we had our first collection from Simply Cups and have successful diverted over 300 cups. This is a fantastic number that is expected to grow in the next couple of months. Thank you to all who bean contributing to this fantastic initiative.

We all need to work together and combat the war against waste. This affects everyone one of us weather you believe in it or not. While this is focusing on coffee cups it is a start onto something much greater.

Lastly, we are always looking for new members to be part of the action group the more people we have the easier it gets! Please feel free to contact me or Mr Robert Monk for more info.