Sustainable Bubble Tea Initiative
Source Reduction Plan (SRP) Overview
Name of SRP
Partners Delivering the SRP
Acknowledgement of partners/organisations that helped implement the SRP and their key responsibilities.
(Local Council, other local government agencies, other community groups).
Tangaroa Blue Foundation: Project lead of SRP, responsible for volunteer engagement, data collection and synthesis, project reporting.
Cleanwater Group: Supported all asset installation and management during project
KINOI – small business promoting reusable bubble tea cups & other products. Responsible for creating the educational posters using their knowledge of the bubble tea drinking community and Asian culture to create resources which will be more effective in communicating the message.
Recycling Victoria Communities Fund delivered by Sustainability Victoria on behalf of the Victorian State Government: Provided project funding
City of Melbourne, Dandenong & Maribyrnong: The local government areas with high bubble tea-associated litter in stormwater drains, assisted with asset funding, council staff engagement, asset management post-project, and source reduction project support.
33 Bubble Tea stores: accepted resources to display and encourage correct disposal of litter.
Location
Name the type of location; beach, school, CBD, industrial area and the town/city the SPR was implemented.
(For example, Woolworths carpark, Castletown, Townsville)
Bubble Tea Stores within 3 Local Government Areas
- City of Melbourne
- City of Dandenong
- City of Maribyrnong
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Overall Goals & Background
Targeted Debris/Litter Item
Name of item or group of items being targeted in this SRP (For example, water bottles or recreational fishing gear)
Bubble tea-related litter
- Straws and straw packaging
- Plastic cups and lids
- Plastic bags
- Plastic peel-off seals for cups
Why is the SRP needed?
As Bubble Tea is a readily growing industry with stores opening at a fast rate within the Melbourne region, there are many bubble tea stores located within the above local government areas. Each bubble tea drink can generate up to 8 pieces of plastic packaging. Research has shown that each bubble tea store sells approximately 150-500 bubble teas a day, but some stores can sell up to 1000 a day. After collecting data from stormwater drains around Melbourne, significant bubble tea-associated litter was found.
Promoting reusable options, such as customers bringing their own cups or straws, would significantly reduce the amount of litter generated from bubble tea potentially entering stormwater drains around Melbourne. Once this litter is in the stormwater system, it has the potential to flow into Port Phillip Bay. Tangaroa Blue Foundation sees this SRP as having a long-term impact as it can change consumer behaviour and work to limit the amount of plastic entering stormwater drains.
Following a survey of rubbish bins within bubble tea stores, we found that bins were hard to identify and locate and they could be moved to more obvious positions, making them easier to use. Some stores didn’t have bins at all. Clearer labelling was designed and suggestions for bin locations were made to stores to assist customers in disposing of excess packing before leaving the store.
The Victorian Government Single Use Plastic Ban on the sale and supply of certain single-use plastics was due to be implemented on 1st February 2023. Educating customers about how to reduce their waste and switch to reusable options occurred at a time that they were made aware certain packaging was not continuing. In doing so, this encouraged consumers to make positive choices that could contribute to waste reduction.
Logistics
General Timeline
How long did it take?
Include audits, installation/distribution of materials, SRP completion & reporting.
General timeline:
- 2019-2020 Phase 1
- 2021-2022 Phase 2
- 2023-ongoing Phase 3
Assets design: 3 Months (August-October 2022)
Auditing & Reporting: 2 phases of drain audits completed over 8-week interval periods. 3rd phase is still in progress, 3 audits have been completed at the time of reporting (Feb 2024).
The specific goal for this SRP was to reduce the amount of bubble tea associated litter found within the stormwater drain traps in the local government areas of Melbourne. We worked to provide downloadable educational and informative messaging and resources to bubble tea shop owners/management, employees, and customers in English, Vietnamese, and Chinese to encourage responsible disposal of litter and switching to reusable bubble tea products. This occurred in alignment with support to stores leading up to the Victorian Government Single Use Plastic Ban in Feb 2023.
Our Sustainable Bubble Tea Initiative was measured by auditing stormwater drains 10 times at 8-week intervals (i.e. over 80 weeks), entering data collected into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) database, and then comparing data from before and after the implementation of the SRP.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, our goals had to shift to accommodate travel restrictions, lockdowns, and other logistical challenges. This resulted in 3 phases of the SRP, with the 3rd phase currently ongoing.
- Phase 1 2019-2020: 8 x drain audits every 8 weeks to assess bubble tea litter amounts in stormwater drains
- Phase 2 2021-2022: 4 x drain audits every 8 weeks to confirm data from the previous phase was still accurate. After this, SRP resources were distributed to bubble tea stores, along with recommendations for bin placement and promoting reusables to consumers. 6 more drain audits continued at 8-week intervals to assess the effectiveness of SRP. On reflection, we realised this timeframe was too short to accurately measure the effectiveness of the SRP assets.
- Phase 3 2023-ongoing: Further drain audits every 8 weeks to accurately gauge the effectiveness of the SRP assets and Victorian Government Single Use Plastic Ban
Measuring Success
How did you measure the success of the
SRP?
Some examples include:
– How did you measure/show the reduction of litter, through data collection?
– How many assets were created and distributed?
– Targeted audience (what type of audience were reached and how many people? How was this measured?)
– How did you measure community engagement?
At each audit of the stormwater drains within the City of Melbourne, Dandenong & Maribyrnong areas, TBF tediously separated all litter from organic matter and categorised it into 120 different categories on the AMDI Database. Direct comparisons from Phase 1, Phase 2 & Phase 3 of ‘Let’s Strain the Drains’ were used in regard to bubble tea litter before and after the SRP was implemented.
Assets: Downloadable educational/informative posters in English, Vietnamese & Chinese, educational and informative messaging resources, clear BIN stickers & advertising reusable bubble tea product options.
- 2 x Vietnamese posters
- 2 x Chinese posters
- 3 x English posters
- 1 x bin sticker
Distribution: A total of 20 stores across the 3 local government areas took the posters and stickers to display in the store. These posters were also available for free download from the Tangaroa Blue Foundation website.
https://www.tangaroablue.org/wpfd_file/sustainable-bubble-tea-project-poster-vietnamese-a3/
https://www.tangaroablue.org/wpfd_file/poster-ways-to-reduce-bubble-tea-litter/
https://www.tangaroablue.org/wpfd_file/sustainable-bubble-tea-project-poster-chinese-a3/
KINOI: Kinoi, with experience in sale and promotion of reusable products, collaborated with a skilled Asian-styled graphic designer who was employed to create, design, and translate our necessary resources. By blending their creative skills and industry expertise, the posters stand out and resonate with the bubble tea customers.
Audience reach: Bubble tea shop owners/management, staff and customers in-store & online
While our primary target audience was Bubble Tea customers and drinkers, store owners, managers, and staff played a crucial role in both implementing the SRP and promoting it along with the associated messages. Initially an Asian-dominated demographic, this industry is rapidly expanding and has increasing popularity with a typically young customer base, but also all ages.
Data Collection & Reporting
What methodology did you use to collect
the data?
How was the data recorded and shared?
(For example, audits, survey frequency, AMDI Database) Include evidence of the methodology used relevant to your type of location. Monitoring Methodology – Tangaroa Blue
Data was collected using the AMDI method for stormwater drain traps. https://www.tangaroablue.org/amdi/monitoring-methodology/
Monitoring methodology – The stormwater drain traps contents were collected, emptied, and sorted every 8 weeks, with a total of 8 cycles in Phase 1, and 10 cycles in Phase 2 of the ‘Let’s Strain the Drains’ project.
Results and Reflections
Positive Outcomes
What was the outcome of your SMART goal?
– Was there a reduction in targeted debris/ litter?
– What assets were created/how many were distributed?
– Did you reach your targeted audience and how was the community engaged?
Include website links and social media platforms
The data collected for this SRP identified the location of the stormwater drains where litter was collected, and in doing so, also provided insight on potential litter sources in the surrounding areas.
The data is categorised into specific litter types allowing for direct comparisons over time, or against other local areas with bubble tea stores that were not involved in the SRP.
Reduction rates are shown below between Phase 1 (pre-SRP) & Phase 2 (post-SRP). These outcomes show that the collaboration of Bubble tea stores, TBF and the Victorian Government single-use plastic ban has proven to reduce the litter in this area.
- 10% reduction of bubble tea litter within Dandenong
- 68% reduction of bubble tea litter within Maribyrnong
- 46% reduction of bubble tea litter on Balmoral Ave, Springvale
- 30% reduction rate of bubble tea litter on Buckingham Ave, Springvale
Although these reduction figures are great, it was hard to complete a valid conclusion of outcomes due to several factors:
Many bubble tea stores switched to using paper straws and paper straw wrappers during the single-use plastic bans, so there was less plastic litter in the audits compared to the first audit.
Assets Printed: 730
Asset Downloads:
- Join Us Poster – 40
- Staff Communication Guide – 36
- Ways To Reduce Bubble Tea Litter – 49
- Bin sticker A5 – 42
- Sustainable bubble tea project poster, Vietnamese A3 – 44
Sustainable bubble tea project poster, Chinese A3 – 39
Gotcha and Bubble Cup: requested to use the resources for all of their Victorian stores
Facebook: 3 Posts, audience reach of 4349, and 146 audience engagements.
KINOI: Youtube – 1 video with 319 views
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrvdbCH35y8
- https://www.kinoi.com.au/blogs/news/sustainable-bubble-tea-project-tangaroablue-kinoicollection
Website: 2 articles
Funding
What did the SRP cost?
– Cash fundings for asset creation and implementation
– What In-kind funding support did you receive from partners/organisations?
Overall Cost – $10,000
Assets: $617 printing costs
Recycling Victoria Communities Fund: In-Kind Support for drain audits
In-Kind Support: Kinoi provided many hours of in-kind support and worked closely with the graphic designer.
Challenges & Improvements
What challenges did you face during the SRP?
– How were these addressed and adapted to?
What could be improved if this SRP was to be replicated?
While Tangaroa Blue Foundation strongly supports the Single Use Plastics Ban, our data reporting was impacted by uncontrollable aspects such as the swap for paper straws and packaging and companies preparing in advance for the ban.
Making contact with the stores proved more difficult than originally thought, as it was difficult to contact the store owner/managers at a suitable time for them to discuss the display of the posters. We started to contact via phone or email, however email addresses presented online were obsolete, or we received limited or no replies and the deciding owner was unavailable.
Given the challenges, in-store visits were made however these were timely with no guarantee to discuss the initiative with the store owner/manager or staff due to being popular and busy locations.
Typically the chain store managers, but also the staff were hesitant to allow the TBF staff to display the posters without approval from their marketing departments or without their manager’s consent.
33/66 of the Bubble Tea stores contacted accepted our resources, however it was difficult to determine if the posters were well displayed and if so how long for. To improve the SRP for the future, more time would be required to make this realistic, TBF staff could return to all participating stores to see if the posters are still displayed.
Future Opportunities
What were some additional positive outcomes?
Is your SRP still in action?
(For example, have any partners/organisations, Local Council, agencies, or community groups continued to implement your SRP?)
Include website links & social media
Feedback from in-store visits was incredibly helpful.
Store owners/managers and staff liked the posters, enjoying the pictures but also the different languages. There was an interest in the Arabic language too, for stores within suburbs with high Arab populations.
Following the commitment of companies Gotcha & Bubble Cup, to display posters in all of their stores, TBF hopes to review realistic timelines so that this SRP could be implemented across Victoria and potentially interstate.
