Who and what is UYO?
I met Laura a number of years ago and we quickly solidified our friendship over books, books and our hatred of single use coffee cups. We also chatted on my podcast and you can listen to it here!
There’s no reason for them. There’s no point in them. The earth is saying “no” and this is where ‘Use Your Own‘ comes in.
A teeny group of friends decided that they had to do something about hospitality and single use stuff because we love hospitality and they could do with a bit of a hand and so, UYO was born. A responsible not-for-profit cafe guide that spreads the love of all your favourites around New Zealand and lets you know where they are and what they’re doing. Cafes that love us when we show up smiling with our box, jar, keep cup and respectfully beam and joyfully love it when we do.
The UYO guide and Instagram account shares their love of these cafes and any eatery, cafe or juice bar, coffee cart, owner operated or franchise who welcomes reuse be represented by UYO for free. The only condition from them is that cafes don’t make a habit of sharing single use love or promoting branded litter. They can’t represent you unless you are committed to normalising reuse, and influencing your customers to do the same.
That’s it. Sign up now y’all! If you use Instagram, add your voice to the reuse evolution at @uyo.nz ~ they pledge to reshare any images that show reusables in action, or folks making time to stay. Because this is how change happens. Something is seen as normal. Everyone is doing it, so I will too!
They support roasters, cafes and NZ artisans who make beautiful hand made cups. The website also has a directory of roasters who home deliver to folks like you and me, and has resources to help hospo connect with all the services and products they need to cut their waste, plus free lance baristas, bakers, makers, candlestick makers (I might have made that one up….)
They help us find free water, coffee beans to go, places to buy a reusable cup, or borrow one from a mug library if we forget our own. We can use UYO to search for free wifi, plant based options, and gluten free too.
I use them on my travels around the country, in my own town, heading off to a lovely place for the weekend and need to know where the good humans are STAT.
I use them on my travels around the country, in my own town, heading off to a lovely place for the weekend and need to know where the good humans are STAT.
They’re community focused, supporting anyone doing good stuff and want to grow a planet friendly hospitality industry.
They want everyone to be in; hospo, tradies, social sector, government. Teachers, lawyers, retail. Nurses, doctors, pharmacists. We all have our part to play. And more importantly those who have a voice. Instagrammers, influencers, bloggers and writers. Photographers, advertising, marketers. We have to be the people who lead this stuff in the stuff we’re talking about.
So that means no more showing off your single use cup because it’s ‘pretty’ (it’s not it’s shit), no more working with brands who work with companies who throw plastic into the ocean. Constantly asking questions, posing thought, creating conversations. We all have our part to play.
If you’re a consumer of coffee:
“What can I do?” I hear you cry? For starters Get yourself a keep cup (or respective other), jar, mug from home, repurpose jar, holder of sorts and SLAM THAT SINGLE USE COFFEE CUP OUT OF YOUR LIFE. Yes I’m shouting. There’s absolutely no excuse. They’re shit. You use them for 2 minutes and then they go into the ground.
That’s the most messed up thing I’ve ever heard: Never to be used again.
“But I use compostable take away cups” I also hear you cry. But that cup has to be made somewhere, using water, trees and fossil fuels to get it to the cafe. Why can’t we just have our own that we use every damn day? Stuff them everywhere so you don’t get caught out. And use my mantra “no cup, no coffee”. Make time to stay or go without.
And I live for coffee.
If you’re a cafe:
The team at UYO want to support you in any way possible. You have a hard job running a cafe and so want to take the “it’s too hard out of the equation”. Need support sharing your cafe love? Sign up with UYO and let Laura show off all the love on their Instagram page. Need help getting rid of Single use? Let Laura and the team help you navigate that and show you the way. It WON’T lose you customers, it WON’T cost you money.
The awesome Brona from Fedeli Cafe in Wānaka did it and has never looked back. Infact they get MORE customers who know they don’t use single use.
Note: They have guides and resources on the website geared just for hospo. All free, all created after years of industry conversations (and we love a good kōrero).
Whats happening in NZ
There’s a huge movement supported by UYO to navigate, have the kōrero about not using single use anymore and it’s happening at Sucfreewanaka, Sustainable Queenstown, Extinction Rebellion
This is not the end of these messages this is the start of seeing what i can do to help. If you’re a cafe, get in touch and I’ll help you navigate how you can help. If you’re a consumer let me know how we can help together.
Use Your Own is also about using your own head, brain, mind, decision, credit card, hands, body, mouth, voice, privilege, desire, future, present and what we’ve learnt from the past to forge forward to a better future eh.
UYO and I collaborated on this piece and I’m so proud to work with them
