Butterbox Café at Long Reef lends mugs instead of handing out takeaway cups and lids, and estimates it saves about A$25 a week.
- Authors / organisation
- New South Wales Environment Protection Authority
- Year
- 2024
- Study type
- Institutional report
- Evidence strength
- Evidence: Low
- Sample / scope
- One café
- Key finding
- A mug library at Butterbox Café saves about A$25 a week, or A$1,300 a year, in packaging.
- Headline number
- A$1,300 a year saved on packaging
- Caveats / how it is misquoted
- Self-reported estimate by the café, published in a government case study; not independently measured.
- Open access
- Yes
- Verified on
- 24 September 2026
Butterbox Café at Long Reef, Sydney, set up a mug library: customers borrow a mug and bring it back, instead of taking a disposable cup and lid. It was one of the case studies in the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority’s reusable café project.
The café estimates it saves about A$25 a week, or about A$1,300 a year, on packaging.
It is a small sum, but it is money a small business no longer spends, and the change needed only a shelf of mugs.
