As people are slowly returning to the office, it is time to get your reusable coffee cup out of the cupboard and start making your daily trips again to your favourite coffee shop.
While there is no shortage of supply, for the founders of Uppercup it has always been about providing eco-friendly and sustainable solutions, but also creating and supporting Australian jobs.
“We find small choices around using local suppliers makes a big difference to our local community,” says co-founder Felicity Ford.
“In an example, one job we did directly hired over 25 people and that doesn’t take into account our suppliers of materials. Supporting local suppliers really impacts the community and Australia’s economy, as every business pays taxes here.
“We are lucky enough to work within a metro Victorian business hub, where most of our supporting suppliers have been around for over 35 years.”
While the Uppercup was launched a few years ago, it wasn’t until recently the company introduced its Uppercup+ after its owners realised that sometimes recyclability isn’t enough when considering a majority of recycling waste is not actually recycled. Meaning, even if a recycled item is placed in the recycling bin it may still end up in landfill anyway.
“All good things must come to an end and this includes our cups. The question was, what is happening to our reusable cups once people are finished with them? We are committed to lowering any impact we have on the environment and this includes the post-purchase environmental effects we are having with our products,” says Ford.
“So we came up with Uppercup Plus, a cup made out of recycled Uppercups. This is a circular-economy solution; we offer a return program to any client and use those returned cups to recreate or repropose and recycle our products, meaning nothing ends up in landfill. The best part about this is all can be done locally, creating more jobs and cutting down the waste that goes into our local eco-system.”
The company already offered spare parts, which meant that if you broke one part of a product, you could replace it, rather than buying an entirely new product. Also, all of its products can be recycled in people’s recycling bins.
“Less than 60 per cent of your recycling waste is recycled. Meaning that even if you place something in a recycling bin, it will probably still end up in landfill. One of our main goals as a business is to make it easy for everyone to reduce – reuse – recycle.
“We are committed to closing the loop and recycling old Uppercups at the end of life. Recycling old Uppercups means that we have created a closed-loop solution, where old Uppercups can be recycled and reused. It is a closed-loop solution. Your old cup won’t end up in landfill but will be recycled locally and made into a new Uppercup+ ready to be used again,” adds Ford.
