You Can Fit 50,000 Coffee Cups in an Old Melbourne Tram

If you’re in the city today and you see a tram pass by, filled to the brim with empty coffee cups, you’re not dreaming.

Australians consume 50,000 takeaway coffees every 30 minutes, and ABC presenter Craig Reucassel has commandeered an old tram for the day to show Melburnians what that looks like.

This mobile reminder of the country’s coffee addiction and the waste that goes with it, is being filmed as part of Reucassel’s new three-part ABC series, War on Waste.

The program will take a look at the way Australians create waste in various facets of their everyday lives. For example, the 50,000 coffee cups we go through every half-hour, which go straight to landfill.

It’s enough to fill a tram. So, today Reucassel has done just that. He’s not asking for people to stop drinking coffee, but to think about how they’re drinking it, encouraging people to #BYOCoffeeCup. “If you're using it once and throwing it away it's probably a waste,” he tweeted earlier.

It’s estimated that up to one billion coffee cups go to landfill every year. While takeaway coffee cups may appear to be made from paper only (with the assumption they would easily break down) many have plastic coating or lining that is not biodegradable.

The War on Waste will air later this year.