Swap for Good – Cafes safely reducing single-use plastics
Whilst Covid-19 has been a challenge, Northern Beaches cafes have adopted innovative ways to serve their customers and reduce waste.
Video text transcript
- Jacobe Marsh, French Basket
- Phil Dawson, Ruby Lane
View of the ocean
Dee Why Beach with two women walking on the promenade while another woman walks her dog. Another woman sits looking at the ocean in the background.
Jacobe: Hi I’m Jacobe and like a lot of us very passionate about the ocean. When we started this cafe we started without any disposable takeaway cups. But when Corona hit, we had to adapt and put in measures to keep our staff and customers safe.
Young male customer is served by a female staff member at French Basket café. Female staff member points to a container on the counter of liquid sanitising solution and the customer places their reusable cup in the container.
Jacobe: So customers can use reusable cup lids. We ask them to keep their lid.
Visual of steps explained in voiceover.
Jacobe: They put their clean cup into food grade sanitising solution and we rinse it with boiling water. We continue to make our customers’ coffee.
A lid is removed from a reusable cup to show a freshly made coffee.
Jacobe: So this means we’re still managing to reduce single-use plastics
Aerial view of Dee Why Beach and shops
Visual of Jacobe and his partner smiling in front of their café.
Jacobe: but also keeping our customers and staff safe.
Change of locations: Aerial view of Manly Beach and surrounds
Phil: Hi I’m Phil. We’ve always been big advocates of reducing single-use plastics. And so are our customers.
And we wanted to figure out a way to continue doing this throughout the COVID-19 pandemic whilst keeping everyone safe.
Steps of swap and go reusable cup system method with voiceover of Phil
Phil: Our Swap and Go reusable cup system is as popular as ever.
Customers return previously-used cups, keep their lid/s and collect their drinks in clean, sanitised cups.
For extra safety staff wash their hands every time they stack the dishwasher.
Phil behind the coffee machine making a coffee
Coffee is poured into two metal cups at the coffee machine
Phil: We’re also adopting a contactless system - where our baristas avoid touching customers cups altogether.
Milk is frothed. Coffee is poured into a reusable cup in a counter labelled ‘BYO Cup Drop Zone’. Milk is poured into the reusable cup. A hand appears, places a lid on the reusable coffee cup and takes the coffee out of shot.
Phil: So we’re able to continue serving customers coffee in their own reusable cups. It’s simple and safe!
A hand appears on the screen with a spray bottle which applies cleaning solution onto the counter. The counter is wiped down as a female customer walks away in the background.
Phil: The new normal doesn’t mean having to use more single-use plastic.
A black sign with white writing sit on a wooden crate with the words: ‘Be kind. We’re all in this together’. A female customer holding a coffee walks out of the café.
Phil: And remember, we’re all in this together.
A Northern Beaches Council logo appears on a white background with the text: Encourage your local café to join our Swap for Good program.