‘I use disposable cups’: Chris Minns backflips on takeaway coffee cups after media and business backlash

Legislation requiring mugs to be offered when people drink at cafes, to be scrapped with environment minister stating ‘we need to clear this up’

The New South Wales government has backflipped on its plan to force cafes to offer customers who dine in the option of mugs and glasses instead of takeaway cups.

The Chris Minns government will also ditch a law that would have required businesses to participate in a reusable cup scheme or risk a fine up to $110,000.

Labor reversed its position a week after the legislation passed parliament, following a backlash from small businesses and News Corp Australia.

The reform was part of the Minns government’s plan to reduce plastic waste given Sydney’s landfill is projected to run out by 2030.

The laws to be axed would have made it a requirement for cafes to offer mugs or glasses when customers dined in from 2028.

The NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, told 2GB radio on Wednesday morning that the government would repeal the laws relating to mugs and glasses and the potential $110,000 fine.

“We know small businesses are under pressure and we want them to be able to operate in the way that they need to operate, to run their business,” she said.

“It was always the plan that there would be extensive exemptions.”

Separate reforms requiring businesses to accept customers’ own reusable cups – so long as they are “clean” – will remain in place. So too will a law requiring single-use takeaway cups to be recyclable by 2028.