Coffee culture that cares for our environment – we’ll drink to that!

Auckland Zoo is delighted to be introducing the innovative Again Again zero waste to landfill coffee cup lending scheme to its coffee, tea and hot chocolate loving visitors – a move that will eliminate the use of 160,000 single-use compostable cups a year! 

From 11 June (launch of Again Again in Auckland) Zoo visitors wanting a hot brew to go rather than a sit down hot drink in café crockery, can use their own re-usable cup or borrow an Again Again cup for a refundable $3 deposit.

The cup can then be used again and again at the Zoo or at dozens of other Auckland cafés that are adopting the scheme, or visitors can return their cup for their $3 refund. The Zoo is also inviting a third option; for visitors to gift their $3 refund to the Zoo’s Conservation Fund which helps threatened wildlife in the wild throughout Aotearoa and all around the world.

“Again Again is a really smart, easy and environmentally friendly scheme, and we’re super excited to be making it our sole take-out option,” says Auckland Zoo Commercial Manager, Angela Clarke, who approached the pioneering New Zealand company to join the scheme.

“As part of our sustainability journey, we’ve eliminated single-use plastic bags and drinking bottles, and introduced water bottle filling stations around the Zoo, encouraging people to bring their own reusable bottles. Now we’re able to eliminate the 160,000 single-use compostable cups we use each year. Again Again cups are high-grade stainless steel and can be washed and reused at least 500 times – a far greener, more sustainable option.”

Auckland Zoo sustainability advisor, Tess Chilala, says the wonderful thing about Again Again, along with reducing the Zoo and visitors’ carbon emissions, “is that it will help support a shift in peoples’ thinking in terms of the disposability of products we use every day. It creates a completely different consumption behaviour to buy, use once, bin,” says Tess.

“A more sustainable future for our planet, wildlife and people is going to require a fundamental shift in our relationship with the earth.  Unsustainable extraction of natural resources from the earth puts pressure on land and biodiversity all around the globe. We really need to value the products that are made from our precious natural resources, and consume with respect,” says Tess.

As a certified carbon neutral organisation, Auckland Zoo is constantly working to reduce its carbon emissions and learn about and implement ways to improve and evolve its practices.

Tess explains: “While our coffee cups were 100% commercially compostable, they still required energy and resources to create. In addition, despite our best efforts and that of our waste supplier and compost centre, our audits revealed we had compostable cups ending up in landfill. Because they’re made of organic materials, compostable cups act like plastic in landfill and so don’t break down.

“Again Again has provided us with a really great solution. It’s another small step in helping us put our best (and lowest carbon) foot forward.”

About Again Again:

• Again Again cups are made from the highest grade (304) stainless steel and cups can be used indefinitely, or if damaged, Again Again will recover the steel and recycle here in NZ
• Sleeves (to protect hands from heat) are made from FSC certified paper using non-toxic dyes, and compostable in your home compost, or can be recycled as card/paper. The Zoo will be reusing sleeves that are still intact. Once reached their end-of-life, they will be composted at the Zoo.  
• Lids are silicone. Again Again acknowledges the silicone lids are the weakest part of the Again Again system as they are not recyclable in any commercial capacity in NZ. However, the company is planning to stockpile damaged or end-of-life lids while it continues to explore new options for recycling, and says with a reuse factor of 500 times, it is diverting many single use lids from landfill.  
• Auckland Zoo, a CarboNZero accredited organisation since 2016, is constantly working to better its sustainability and reduce its carbon footprint. It is excited to be adopting the Again Again scheme as its sole take-out option for hot drinks, as wells welcoming visitors bringing their own reusable cups. The move will see the Zoo eliminate the use of 160,000 single use compostable cups
• Auckland Zoo invitation to coffee and nature lovers: Instead of collecting your $3 deposit when returning your Again Again cup, as a Zoo visitor you can gift your deposit to the Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund. Our Fund, established in 2000, directly supports dozens of projects to help threatened wildlife and wild places throughout Aotearoa and all around the world.