In a bid to slow down the spread of COVID-19, the government has implemented a ban on non-essential mass gatherings of more than 500 people and then mandating that everyone arriving from overseas self-isolate for 14 days. On a more local level, cafes, bars and restaurants across the country are taking their own precautionary measures.
As well as encouraging customers and staff to stay home if they feel unwell, increasing cleaning of their venues and providing hand sanitisers, a slew of popular coffee pit-stops are temporarily refusing to accept reusable coffee cups .
Melbourne's Market Lane Coffee has revealed it's switching entirely to paper cups for all coffees served across all of its stores, saying "we want to do what we can to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19". It's also requesting customers use contactless card payment instead of cash, and has rolled out more stringent cross-contamination protocols in-store.
Other popular Melbourne cafes to implement similar changes include Mayday Coffee & Food in Richmond, Carlton-born coffee roastery Seven Seeds and Beaumaris' Saska Cafe.
Meanwhile, Bonnie Coffee has rolled out similar changes across both its Sydney and Melbourne stores, saying it wants to minimise transmission as well as to avoid contamination of its own equipment. Other Sydney venues that are taking a break from reusable cups include Mecca Coffee, Sonoma, The Carpenter, Surry Hills' Artificer, Sample Coffee and Cherry Moon.
Plenty of Brisbane spots are following suit, too, including the CBD's John Mills Himself, which is scrapping cash payments and pausing the use of both dine-in cups and reusable takeaway cups. "As a business where being environmentally best practice is a core value this is no easy decision," the team explained. "For now our community safety must come first." Other caffeine haunts like Pourboy and Coffee Anthology have also put a pause on reusable cups and are encouraging contactless payment instead of cash.
To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
Top image: Kitti Gould