Douglas Chooses to Reuse

Background:
Port Douglas is a charming community in QLD and a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. It has a large annual visitor base and like many communities creates a lot of single use coffee cups. Motivated to do something, Douglas Shire Council engaged Boomerang Alliance to run a reuse program through their Plastic Free Places program. The project launched in August 2025.

Challenge:
The challenge was how to embed reuse in a resort community with high visitation and multiple languages and still be easy and accessible. The system needed a broad approach with minimal barriers for coffee drinkers and operations that still allowed for takeaway, as visitors engage in their daily activities. It is now affectionately referred to as the ‘Blue Cup’ system.

Solution:
Cercle provided 2,000 cups and 8 Drop Pods with reusable liners to be used across 8 participating venues in Port Douglas. This created an inter-connected system to support reuse across the town. While no tech or deposits were used at the launch of the program, Cercle Flow has now been implemented to track assets and washing effort.

Impact:
Simple and colour matched Drop Pods help visitors use and identify reusables and collection points easily. With 8 venues participating, thousands of cups have already been eliminated. The ‘blue cup’ project is gaining momentum and building a culture and identity in the community that can be embraced. With further traction and confidence by vendors and visitors, Port Douglas is set up to fully transition away from single use cups in the future.