The Reusable Cup Trend is Out of Control

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Script: Holly Maley
Editor: Sam Askew
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand

[Earlybird]

I used to work at Starbucks Canada and realized very few people know we also serve the drinks in regular mugs/tea cups/glasses. It’s not very popular so we don’t offer that option if you don’t specifically ask for it. If you’re planning on staying in the cafe to enjoy your drink, definitely ask for those! It’s a great way of saving resources and the baristas might surprise you with latte art! ☕️

[Malinoric]

No joke, the last time I brought a reusable cup into my local Tims, they took a disposable cup to make the coffee, poured it from that cup into my reusable one, then threw out the disposable cup. Why did I even bother at that point?

[BubblesTheMuffin]

The town I used to live in had a small coffee shop that had every drink in glass jars (with lids, and coozies for the warm drinks) and when you’d return them, they gave you a dollar off. They didn’t have paper cups at all. It was so wonderful! It was our favorite place by far and I miss it so much.

[Sammielynnh]

From my experience people use keepcups for the coffee they make at home and drink in the car not for actually using for a coffee purchased at a store, which is usually a more impulse purchase when out and about.

[Talon]

Home brewed coffee at home with $10 insulated mug from Walmart. Used it for over a year at this point saving time and money.

[zappin]

As an Australian, today I found out that:
1. KeepCup is an Australian company.
2. The rest of the world don’t call all small reusable mugs “keep cups”

[TheRealXyzven]

Here’s another problem; I bring my clean reusable coffee mug only to see the person behind the counter use a disposable cup as a measuring tool and then they discard it. It left me thinking why bother bring my cup when there’s water whether I am mindful or not.

[LandoDubs-ojmk]

I feel that there is a significant overlap in the customers who purchase reusable mugs and the customers who make coffee at home. Looking at the use of reusable mugs at to-go locations only will skew the data.

[jsyap]

I can confirm that “KeepCup” is synonymous to reusable coffee cup in Australia, especially in Melbourne where KeepCup was founded.

[Tazallax]

Thrift shops and second hand stores are filled with crappy reusable cups, mugs, and bottles. They're all going to end up being thrown away, slowly breaking down into microplastics and degrading chemicals that leech into the ground.

I've picked up my mom's habit of reusing to-go cups and containers until they're literally cracked or mangled. Many of them are as thermally stable as the reusable products we buy.

[silverandexact]

I worked at Starbucks and any drive-thru orders for people who brought their own cup were made in the disposable cups and then poured into the personal cup. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Waiting to make the drink until we had the personal cup in hand made drive thru times "unacceptably" long.

[thekivster]

Collecting water bottles sounds like the lamest thing ever

[tymon]

Meh I hate all of this stuff. Im not carrying a portable mug with me everywhere I go.

Please serve my coffee in a mug or teacup, thank you. Not everything needs to be "To go".

[PocketsandOutlaw]

I've had a coffee shop refuse to make the coffee in my reusable cup. They wouldnt even make it normally and pour it into my cup, i had to do it.

Something about not being allowed to touch orr stuff.

[GAMMAsaugher]

The problem for the corps. with re-usable good is that potentially you can only sell it once.

[katja]

Thank you for another great video. I intentionally left the house earlier today to have time to sit at a nice coffee shop before catching a train. It is so much more enjoyable to have your coffee/tea from an actual cup and just people watch. Sometimes we are in a hurry, and need to do to-go, but maybe we can all try to slow down and just enjoy small moments and be more sustainable at the same time.

[Lilah-jhno]

Can't solve consumer habit issues with new products. If a customer has to change or improve a habit to make the product "green", it will almost never work.

[booster]

When I was in the office, I used my Keep Cup 1-3 times a day. Just part of my ritual when I came home, I cleaned it, then put back into my bag for the morning. Super easy.

[mekon]

I still have the Stanley thermos my Dad used back in the 70's for his coffee. Still use it for my coffee regularly. That thermos is more than 50 years old and still works fine. The "top" is a screw-off coffee cup.

[hgbugalou]

I'm sure all the ocean life will appreciate us humans switching to reusable cups once they go out of style and are floating around in the Pacific Ocean. 🤣🙁