How the keep cup became a casualty of the pandemic
One of the early casualties of Covid-19 was the reusable coffee cup. Reducing waste took second place to avoiding infection. In the early days, little was known about the disease, how contagious it was and how it was spreading. Now, as society reopens, some cafés are looking for ways to safely reintroduce 'keep cups'.
"Initially when it all happened, we had to say no to reusable cups. We were expecting this massive wave coming towards us, you know," says Frank Kavanagh, co-founder of Cloud Picker Coffee, a Dublin roastery with a coffee shop on Pearse Street and an outlet in Crumlin.
Before the coronavirus, about 50-60pc of Cloud Picker's clients brought reusable cups. Now, Kavanagh says, it is 25-30pc. "It's not bad, but we need to do better," he adds.