Adelaide Zoo’s café swapped plastic milk bottles for reusable kegs and taps. It avoided more than 4,000 bottles in four months, but needed an A$20,000 fit-out and slightly increased milk costs.
- Authors / organisation
- Rawtec for Green Industries SA
- Year
- 2024
- Study type
- Institutional report
- Evidence strength
- Evidence: Low
- Sample / scope
- One café, first four months
- Key finding
- Milk taps and reusable kegs avoided more than 4,000 plastic milk bottles in four months, after an A$20,000 fit-out, and slightly increased milk costs.
- Headline number
- 4,000+ plastic milk bottles avoided in four months
- Caveats / how it is misquoted
- Case study of one café, reported by the operator to a state agency. The fit-out was co-funded by the milk supplier; the split is not given.
- Open access
- Yes
- Verified on
- 24 September 2026
In March 2024 the Fig Tree Café at Adelaide Zoo replaced plastic milk bottles with Fleurieu Milk taps fed from reusable 18-litre kegs. Green Industries SA, South Australia’s circular economy agency, published it as a case study.
The switch needed an A$20,000 fit-out to extend countertops, move the coffee machines and install fridges, co-funded by Fleurieu Milk. The café reports that the new system and supplier slightly increased milk costs, partly offset by less milk wasted per cup.
In its first four months the café avoided more than 4,000 single-use plastic milk bottles.
We include it as an honest example: reuse cut plastic here, but it did not save the café money.
