Last year, when the first season of War On Waste aired on the ABC, we learned that Australians throw away around 1 billion single use coffee cups per year. The country learned that while they may look like they're made out of paper and can be recycled, the plastic lining that makes them leakproof means they are not. This single episode started an avalanche at Keep Cup that led to 3 months waits to get stock. They're certainly not the only company making reusable coffee cups, but they're not all created equal. Today we wanted to explain the difference between the term REUSABLE COFFEE CUP and TRAVEL MUG.

Reusable Coffee Cup Defined

A reusable coffee cup is something that you hand over and 'fill and go'. Think of the simple cup design and the cafe cap with one drinking hole and a smaller pin hole for the air to flow through. That's what we call a reusable coffee cup. It's something you hand over to your barista, it's sized to sit under their machine and you put the lid on and keep it upright and drink it as you go.

Many people will do this at the train station or on the desk at work. The most popular examples of these in our sore are Keep Cup and the glass coffee cups from Sol.

Most coffee shops have names for their different sizes, and for the most part, coffee cup manufacturers are pretty good at sticking to these uniform sizes. When you're handing your coffee cup over, make sure you know what size it is. It's not always printed on the cup.

Travel Mug Defined

A travel mug is a coffee cup that you can travel with, so it has to be leakproof. Because travel also means time, you're best to have one that's vacuum insulated stainless steel, simply because they perform better. There's no point making a coffee and in 90 minutes when you're ready to drink it, it's cold!

By far, the most popular choice is the Coffee Mug from Cheeki. Pictured right, the Cheeki Coffee Mug has a leakproof lid and we do sell replacements for this. It has a simple one handed operation by pressing down on the button in the middle of the lid. Once depressed, you drink from any direction. If you're going to keep your travel mug in the cup holder in your car, there's no 'missing the mouthpiece' to drink.

We also have one from Klean Kanteen which is effectively a wide mouth insulated water bottle with a cafe cap lid. The 2.0 version of the Klean Kanteen cafe cap is now leakproof and pulled apart for easy cleaning.