Keep cups welcomed back to some Canberra cafes as sit in dining resumes

With ACT easing its restriction on eating-in this weekend, some cafes have used the occasion to plot a return to the reusable cup.

Following a ban on reusable takeaway cups across all ONA Coffee cafes, the Cupping Room was one of the first Canberra cafes to welcome them back when it opened its doors to 10 sit in diners at a time on Saturday.

ONA Coffee's two other Canberra venues, Coffee House and Highroad also reintroduced keep cups from Saturday, although the Fyshwick and Dickson venues were yet to return to table-service dining.

Redbrick Coffee owner Tim Manning said reusable coffee cups had been banned in all four of its stores since early March.

Mr Manning operates Redbrick cafes in Fyshwick and Curtin, as well as Makeshift in NewActon's Nishi Building and Clay in Turner.

All four venues will continue to provide takeaway service only and continue the ban on customers' BYO cups until all social distancing measures were removed from cafes.

Mr Manning said 10 people dining at a time was not economically viable and until he felt more certain customers would feel comfortable entering the store while others were dining in, the cafes would only offer takeaway.

"We think this is best practice in terms of managing the health risk," Mr Manning said.

Lonsdale St Roasters 7 in Braddon opened to eat-in diners - 10 at a time from Saturday - the same day it retracted its ban on reusable cups.

Owner Evan Mannan said they've been fortunate during the pandemic to have loyal customers continue to support them through the "trial and error" of getting takeaway service down pat.

Mr Mannan said environmentally conscious practises are an important part of cafe culture in Canberra.

The Australian National University associate professor of sociology Gavin Smith said disposable masks to prevent smoke inhalation over summer and then the use of disposable products in response to the pandemic was likely to leave lasting apprehensions around safety.

"I suspect there will be quite a lot of lingering fear of contamination and fear of touch," he said.

Dr Smith said for most people there was likely to be two competing concerns regarding best behaviour; concern for the ecological damage of mass plastic use and concern over the transmission of the virus.

"Some people will very quickly kick back into habits which pre date COVID-19," he said.

"There will be others who'll wear masks and gloves for a long time, for those people it's really transformed their lives."

Having shut its doors since social distancing regulations were introduced, Barrio Collective Coffee in Braddon has planned to wait another week before it reopens.

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Owner Sam Burns said when they do reopen five people will be allowed to sit inside.

"We did ban keep cups the weekend that the social distancing measures were announced. We only traded for one day after that before we closed down," Mr Burns said.

"We will look to reintroduce reusable cups as soon as possible. For now we are focusing on the bigger picture which is to reopen and get trading."

The first stage of reintroducing reusable cups at Redbrick cafes will likely mean use of stainless steel cups customers pay a $6 deposit on and swap out each time they return to the cafe.

As a coffee supplier to Canberra's bars and restaurants, Mr Manning said it had been difficult watching while other hospitality venues have been forced to shut.

Mr Manning said Redbrick's cafes near residential buildings in Turner and Curtain had fared the best during the pandemic, while the loss of Makeshift's public servant customer base had hurt the most.

The ONA Coffee venues are all participants in ONA Coffee's #giveupthecup campaign, which was launched in February 2020 and aims to remove single use cups from both ONA's wholesale distribution and venues.

Marketing Manager of ONA Coffee, Jordan Montgomery said the last few months had been a setback to the campaign, but the long term goal remained.

"We've seen a reduction in the use of reusable cups over the last few months to almost zero, so you can imagine how many single use cups are now sitting in landfill," Mr Montgomery said.

"There's going to be some uncertainty in the coming months, and maybe there will be some people that will be slightly uncomfortable. However, at some point we will have to decide when to 'switch back' to more sustainable practices, and we want to show people that it is possible to do so in a safe and responsible way."

ONA Coffee baristas won't accept unwashed cups and employees will be required to regularly wash their hands when handling reusable cups.