1. SUSTAINABILITY IN THE NELSON HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

2. Our Focus To reduce the product waste in the hospitality industry in Nelson, either by reducing or recycling.

3. Current Situation We looked on the council website, and handed surveys to local cafes to find out what is already happening. Local Cafes use bulk to reduce waste, but also go through a lot of take-away cups. They didnt have the time or resources to recycle themselves, so wanted a curbside recycling system organised by the council. The Nelson Council already has curb-side recycling for homes, and are reviewing doing so in the CBD. Also offers subsidies for purchasing compost bins/ bokashi. Cant dispose of waste in the York valley landfill-harmful to the environment.

4. Our Options… Encouraging council to get curbside recycling for CBD Encourage use of travel mugs instead of throw-away coffee cups Strengths- could make a massive change as such a lot of bulk of waste in hospotality industry, is what cafes want Weaknesses-doesnt reduce waste, just move it. Not enough facilities in New Zealand to recyle such a lot of waste. Tax payer $$, council already looking into it Strengths- achievable task for us to undertake- will actually see results. By negotiating discount for businesses to offer, people have incentive to bring mugs. Massive reduction of cardboard wastage from coffee cups. Businesses save $ from not having to buy so many coffee mugs Weaknesses- businesses cant offer discount for economic reasons, hassle for people to bring mug, poor advertising of offer

5. Our chosen action We chose to encourage the use of people bringing take-away mugs to be filled up at cafes. - 25 billion styrafoam coffee mugs are used once then thrown out per year -The USA alone produces enough disposable cups per year to circle the earth 436 times -if a person uses 5 cardboard coffee cups a week, they are contributing 10kg of waste in landfills per years. If we can convince only 20 people to start bring travel mugs instead, we are preventing 200kg of waste.

6. How we took action We approached businesses, to see what their opinions on the travel mugs were, and if they would like to offer a discount if people brought them-which we would then advertise. TOXIC COFFEE offered to reduce the $4 price of coffee to $2.75 if someone brought their own travel mug THE CHAI CART offered to reduce the price of Chai by 50 cents if someone brought their own travel mug We made temporary posters for these businesses, but they will soon add the offer to their official price boards. We put up generic posters in Yaza, Zippys, Penguinos and Morrison street cafe advertising the travel mugs, and owners Crema coffee offered to tell customers about bringing the travel mug. We also put an ad in the Nelson Girls College notices advertising the offer

7. Evaluation