This morning I copped a lambasting from my Instagram followers after I shared a photo of my morning coffee and the chaotic misspelling of my name. Within minutes of posting the photo, baby environmental activists were up in my DMs telling me that I should really “think about getting a Keep Cup :)”. The truth is I have a Keep Cup, I actually have three Keep Cup’s but I’m a gigantic piece of shit and I’ve left them all at my work desk, letting them fester in a marinade of curdled soy milk. Retrospectively, I deserved to be royally owned for even thinking that sharing a photo of a coffee cup with the name “Jodie” instead of “Geordie” was actually something that people gave a shit about, but like, it was 8 in the morning, my bus was forty minutes late and I can’t go ten minutes without some sort of meaningless social media exchange.
That was all information that wasn’t relevant to this story, I think I just have some residual embarrassment from my social media faux pas. Though after reading this news I feel slightly less awful about it and slightly more like a valiant crusader of personal hygiene. Sydney’s Bonnie Coffee on Margaret Street in the CBD has imposed a temporary ban on “customer-owned” cups in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
In a notice posted on the door of the cafe, they shared. “In response to ongoing concern around the COVID-19 Coronavirus, Bonnie Coffee is taking some extra precautions to ensure both customers and staff members are safe from potential infection.
“For the coming weeks, we will suspend the use of customer-owned reusable cups to prevent foreign objects from being introduced to the beverage preparation space.”
As well as establishing a temporary ban on reusable cups, the cafe has introduced a disinfectant station for both customers and staff to use.
This decision follows a BYO cup ban announcement from Starbucks stores in the US, UK and Canada.
Professor Sally Bloomfield, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told the BBC that hygiene should take a “greater priority” than environmental concerns whilst it is still possible for coronavirus to be contained.
“We don’t know how serious [coronvirus] is, we are in a completely unknown phase of this, and I think in terms of preventing the spread, for the next three or four weeks then it should take a greater priority than an environmental concerns,” she said.
“Handing someone a reusable cup is just the same as shaking hands with somebody. If there’s anything we can do at the moment to slow down the spread, we should be doing it.”
