Australians love their caffeinated bean water and it’s estimated that we use 1.8 billion disposable coffee cups a year. Luckily, there’s an ACTUAL compostable alternative!

 

In this episode of Act Local, Cameron Doyle meets up with the founders of Compostable Alternatives to learn how your post-adventure coffee can reduce the plastic piling up in landfills.

If you’re like me, you’ve undoubtedly forgotten your Keep Cup and had to grab a takeaway coffee cup instead (naughty, naughty). You’ve also likely been relieved: ‘Oh, that’s cool; it’s compostable’. 

In reality, the packaging should read ‘industrially compostable’, and it’s unlikely your cup will be part of the 0.13% of commercially compostable packaging that’s correctly disposed of and recovered through a composting facility. 

That’s why van-lifers Marion and Alexis created Compostable Alternatives – a range of regenerative packaging for cafes, including coffee cups, that coffee drinkers can compost in their backyard. 

They’re currently on the road chatting to mobile cafes, like your favourite coffee caravan parked on the beach, to get on board with their products and stop sending grubby plastic-lined coffee cups to landfills. 

Do you get giddy watching people doing cool shit to protect the natural world? You’ll love our YouTube series, Act Local.

 

Feature photo by Cameron Doyle

This article is part of Act Local, our project to champion grassroots conservationists who are getting their hands dirty and having a positive environmental impact in their local communities. Check it out!