Leading the way
Earlier this year we caught up with Rachel Johnston, Co-owner of Hula Café in Whitianga, busy mother and passionate about sustainability in business.
Situated metres from the beautiful Whitianga harbour and beach front, Hula Cafe is a thriving business offering a range of food and beverages throughout the day, and to the delight of locals, also periodically host to the ever-popular music jam sessions.
In all the bustle of busy working day, Rachel still finds time to integrate thoughtful environmentally friendly steps into the café’s routines – no plastic straws, recycling juice and milk cartons (liquid paperboard) and most recently focusing on eliminating the use of single use plastics, like Coffee Cups.
As Waahi Tukurua is about to launch a Mercury Bay wide campaign to eliminate Single Use Cups in our beautiful district, we were very interested to hear about Hula’s experience as a business owner encouraging and supporting customers to make more sustainable choices.
As the first business in Whitianga to begin the #Choose to Reuse model in your café Hula, how did you hear about the drive to transition away from single-use plastic and towards reuse systems and what attracted you to it as a model for your business?
Coming from Wellington, it's a way of thinking, most people there are eco-conscious. I knew Again Again from Wellington as well.
Again Again and Havana coffee came up with a scheme, it was a 'no brainer' for us, their systems were implemented and we jumped onboard with their programme.
What are the strategies you have adopted (e.g cup library, Again Again reuse system)?
We offer a wide range of options for our customers, from free cups, to plastic reuse cups, the Again Again library or borrow cups, edible waffle cups, to pottery reuse cups.
What barriers did you find when setting up and what are the challenges on an ongoing basis?
Getting people onboard to use Again Again, which is a very easy and simple programme.
Trying to convince customers to use throwaway cups less or have a throwaway cup on a less regular basis, especially when dining in.
Are you finding any particular benefits to your business?
Yes. The change is happening, slowly. People are realising how easy the Again Again system is once you're using it. It's about changing habits. It's like the plastic bags, it was hard at the beginning and now it's an automatic habit. Old habits are hard to break.
How do you see the “SUC Free Mercury Bay Campaign” delivering for our community?
It will be great to have everyone onboard and working together as a community. It's all for the greater good of the environment and our children's future.
Helping to educate coffee consumers on the environmental impact, e.g., where coffee cups come from and what happens to them after use.
Helping to educate coffee consumers on the environmental impact will be beneficial. There are a lot of misconceptions that all throwaway cups are biodegradable nowadays, but almost all brands are not biodegradable or even recyclable. The process of getting the coffee cup into your hand is often overlooked as well. Trees are milled in one country, shipped to another country to be manufactured, then shipped to New Zealand's capital cities, then courier out to cafes. It's a huge carbon footprint to even get the cups to a cafe, for such a short term, one-off use. It makes no sense why reusable cups are not in common use. It's an easy solution.
Any advice for other businesses considering joining the SUC Free model?
Get onboard with SUC Free Mercury Bay, we are behind a lot of other countries around the world in this regard.
To find out more about the Waahi Tukurua SUC Free Mercury Bay campaign, read the campaign brief on our website, sign up for our newsletter and check our socials.
