#ContactfreeCoffee Service
Due to heightened Covid-19-related hygiene concerns, many coffee shops have once again stopped accepting customers’ reusable cups, and some continue to only use disposable cups in-house, drastically increasing the amount of waste they create. There are ways to ensure the safety of both customers and staff with a ‘contact-free’ or ‘no-touch’ system for handling customers’ reusable cups.
Coffee shop staff can follow this system for a #ContactfreeCoffee experience:
1. Wash hands and surfaces regularly.
2. The customer puts their reusable cup on a tray and passes the tray to the staff.
3. The staff pours the coffee into an in-house reusable cup and then pours it into the customer’s cup, without touching the customer’s cup. Repeat with the coffee. The staff offers the customer their cup on the tray.
If your favourite coffee shop won’t accept your cup, ask them to try #ContactfreeCoffee service
Why Are Disposable Coffee Cups A Problem?
This Unnecessary Waste Can Be Avoided!
What Can You Do As A Consumer?
1. Avoid coffee shops that don’t provide reusable cups
2. Always ask for a reusable cup
3. Bring your own reusable cup, and request #ContactfreeCoffee service
4. If they don’t agree to #ContactfreeCoffee service, write to them to suggest that they try it, sharing the instructions and video with them (template letter below)
5. Share this message through social media
67% of customers use disposable
cups for drinking hot drinks while sitting in coffee shops!*

*Based on a Pre-Covid 19 survey in Hong Kong of 7,792 people across 223 coffee shops over 522 visits
Copy this template letter to send to a coffee shop, or create your own
Dear Coffee Shop name,
Based on gov’t data, in 2021 over 10,800 tonnes of waste went to landfill every day in Hong Kong and 266 tonnes per day was made up of plastic dining ware. We are creating too much waste, and a lot of it is unnecessary.
I went to your coffee shop located at location on date at around time. and was not able to to use my own take-away cup and instead had to use a disposable one. This creates unnecessary and avoidable waste. I understand that due to Covid-19, you want to keep your staff as well as your customers safe and have chosen not to allow people to use their own cups. I would like to share with you that there there are ways to ensure the safety of both customers and staff with a ‘contact-free’ or ‘no-touch’ system for handling customers’ take-away cups, as follows:
1. Staff wash their hands and surfaces regularly.
2. The customer puts their reusable cup on a tray and passes the tray to the staff.
3. The staff pours the coffee into an in-house reusable cup and then pours it into the customer’s cup, without touching the customer’s cup. Repeat with the milk. The staff offers the customer their cup from the tray.
I hope that you will consider this method of service so that I can once again enjoy your coffee in my own reusable cup. Please have a look at this video to see contact-free service in action.
Best regards,
Take Action: Companies
What Can the Coffee Shops Do To Reduce Coffee Cup Waste?
Coffee shops should not wait for future legislation but should start making changes as soon as possible.