Let’s face it. Some of these reusable cups look better for the Gram anyway.

Having your own reusable takeaway coffee cup is quickly becoming rad now. More than just aesthetics, these cups are also more sustainable and maintains the integrity of your beverage better. If you haven't found a reason to get one for yourself yet, we'll give you five!

1. Traditional Takeaway Coffee Cups are Not Sustainable

You might think that your favourite cafe puts their takeaway coffee in paper cups; they’re brown and rough to the touch, and they look just like those recycled paper cup things. It’s not so bad. Well, yes and no.

 

 

Did you know? The takeaway coffee cups that you’re probably drinking off while reading this article are lined with a thin layer of plastic. This is what allows the paper cups to hold your hot beverage, because it’s not like paper is waterproof, right? Oh, and the lids are plastic too. :(

Yes. Paper cups are economical and were a step up in reducing plastic waste, but today we just want to encourage everyone with something we can do better.

Because of that thin layer of plastic, a majority of paper cups still end up in landfills and unprocessed by paper mills. That kinda defeats the purpose of having something that’s more easily recyclable like paper.

This makes paper cups unsustainable too, since they can’t disintegrate like how normal paper would, with the plastic layer.

Now that you’ve learnt this, you might reconsider investing in a reusable coffee cup. You’d be doing yourself a favour for a better lifestyle ahead and Mother Earth will thank you for taking this small step towards environmental friendliness.

 

2. Having a Personal Coffee Cup Saves You Money!

Most cafes offer some discounts to customers if they use a reusable coffee cup when patronising the store. So, let’s get down to some calculations. Assuming an americano costs you $5 in Singapore, and you save 10% each time you bring your own cup. You save S$0.50 per order.

Assuming one gets an americano to kickstart each working day:

261 working days (in a year)  x S$0.50 =S$130.50

Now while that might not seem like much, that’s enough to make back the cost purchasing a reusable cup by 3-fold. And hey, you know what they say: Money saved here is money better spent elsewhere.

Plus, that’s just talking about coffee. You can use your reusable cup for many other beverages! And these cups last for ages longer than other cups. Tada! We’ve shared a habit that saves you money for years!

 

3. Maintain Your Temperatures for Longer

Most reusable coffee cups keep your hot beverage warm for longer periods of time. Bar the pioneering, well-loved KeepCup’s Original and Brew Series, most reusable coffee cups on the market have thermal insulation these days. They are constructed with a vacuum-sealed double wall that maintains inner temperatures while remaining soft to the touch.

This enables the cup to keep the integrity of the temperature - usually up to 3 hours for hot beverages and longer for cold. Moreover, escape the aberrant unwelcoming plastic taste, or occasional old paper smell found in traditional takeaway cups. Your morning coffee experience will be heightened with a reusable cup that not only looks good, but feels, smells and tastes better.

 true true true indeed!

We’re bringing in some lovely stainless steel cups from our friends at Made by Fressko in Australia. These cups are insulated stainless steel and spill-proof too! The seals on their lids help keep temperatures inside that much longer still. Images below!

 

4. Put the Style in Lifestyle

This is where we get the attention of the avid Instagrammers. There are plenty of well-designed reusable cups out there. From Klean Kanteen, KeepCup, STTOKE, to names that haven’t arrived on our shores yet. We are confident that you can find one that suits your personality. Check out some of these images!

 

Whoever said there’s no style in an eco-friendly lifestyle? It’s right there.

We love how the Made by Fressko Cafe series looks in photos: minimal, no-frills, sleek and vibrant - and we love how it looks in hands even more!

Some of us might even want to personalise our coffee cups with waterproof stickers. That’ll be some mean attitude right there!

 

5. Reduce Waste!!!

Finally, needless to say, owning a reusable coffee cup reduces waste in landfills and oceans. Plastic waste, regardless of the origin, has proven to be costly to recycle. In another article, we touched on how we don't have an adequate infrastructure for recycling and processing plastics here in Singapore.

The World Wildlife Fund states that in Singapore alone, 700 million kilograms of plastic waste is discarded every year. But only 10% of plastics are being recycled. By 2050, there could be more plastics in the ocean than fish by weight. This frightens us, and we hope it scares you too.

It might be the scariest thing this Halloween.

 

“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

Howard Zinn

 

Imagine 100 people using a reusable cup for their morning americano every working day. The difference in wasted single-use cups would be stark.

We hope to encourage more people to live a more sustainable lifestyle, away from single-use plastics as much as possible.

Made by Fressko cups are on preorder now and expected to arrive mid-November! If you’re reading this after that, you can get them in just TWO DAYS. Yippee.