All Eyes on UYO!
It is time to shine a spotlight on one of our favourite change agents in New Zealand, Laura Cope from UYO (Use Your Own) and Takeaway Throwaways! This badass, environmental pro-activist, waste crusader has been making waves around the country with her volunteer-based Use Your Own cup initiative.
UYO is a not for profit enterprise that encourages people to steer clear of single-use cups with positive messaging and a nationwide presence. UYO has a very accessible online cafe guide which has various options for finding the right cafe for you. You can choose between pet-friendly, vegetarian and sustainable cafes. Plus any profits made on this venture are donated to charity. We love seeing great people doing amazing things simply out of the goodness of their hearts and their love for the environment.
Laura is a local legend who has been working hard over the past few years to help the people of Aotearoa change their habits when it comes to reducing hospitality related waste. She is a team collaborator extraordinaire and the team at Res.Awesome absolutely love her and her mahi! We can even thank her for her role in implementing the cup library at our beloved Otago Farmers Market!
Shop Local humans, it’s how we shift the systems.
Seeing terrible habits emerging from local consumers inspired Laura to take positive action in making the ‘inherently wasteful’ hospitality industry less damaging to the environment. Encouraging consumer responsibility in a fun and colourful way is Laura’s main goal, as social change is best achieved when you inspire rather than cajole people. We can get on board with that! The small team at the helm of UYO ultimately support hospitality businesses in implementing waste avoidance strategies.
Check out the UYO instagram here.
UYO and Takeaway Throwaways are calling on the Government to ban single-use disposable food and drink service-ware containing plastic (including degradable, biodegradable or compostable plastic - check out our blog on that too), and mandate co-designed, accessible, reusable alternatives instead (using powers under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008).
Sign the petition here.
Single-use disposable service-ware is simply outdated and exacerbates the ‘take-make-dispose’ linear economy we are trying to move away from. If we continue to use disposable service-ware we are accelerating our global and local waste crisis, filling up our landfills (which produce methane and toxic leachate), and increasing litter pollution. Extracting natural resources to make endless streams of single-use items is unsustainable.
We need visionary people (like Laura!), forward-thinking businesses and policy solutions that prevent and reduce waste and insist on replacing throwaways with non-toxic reusable alternatives that work for everyone and the planet!
Papatūānuku is screaming out for this shift, and legends like Laura are who we have to thank for creating behaviour change locally.
We Love you Laura, Arohanui e hoa <3
Thank you to Laura and the team at UYO for all the hard mahi! We appreciate you and tautoko you on your mission!
xxx
Researched + written by Erin Cox
Edited by Fi Clements
