Returnr Cups and Canisters at Market Lane

27 February 2019

As a business, we’re committed to sustainability, and we’re continually looking for ways to help reduce our environmental impact.

To that end, we’re so excited to be partnering with Returnr, a Melbourne-based company that produces reusable stainless-steel cups and containers to help decrease the demand for single-use materials in Australian cafes and across the hospitality industry.

We introduced Returnr’s reusable cups in our shops in September 2019, as a more sustainable option for getting a take-away coffee. The process is simple:

Purchase a coffee as usual and ask for it to be served in a Returnr cup.
Pay a $6 deposit and enjoy your coffee on the go.
Bring your cup back to any Market Lane shop and get your $6 back in full.

Offering Returnr cups in our shops means if a customer accidentally forgets their own cup, they can still get a take-away coffee in a reusable cup. And as so many of our shops are based in or near some of Melbourne’s incredible markets (Prahran Market, Queen Victoria Market and South Melbourne Market), a coffee in a Returnr cup means you can sip and enjoy a coffee while you shop and then return the cup back to us once you’ve bought all your market goodies! As iconic (and Instagrammable!) as our Market Lane take-away cups are, we’ve been pleased to see an increase in Returnr cup use every week, and hope that one day this can be our only take-away solution.

In January 2020, we announced a project we’d been working on with the team at Returnr for a while: reusable canisters for purchasing our coffee beans! Along with our friends at Seven Seeds, we’re thrilled to be one of the first companies in Australia to offer this more sustainable alternative to disposable coffee bags. Our existing coffee bags are 100% kerbside recyclable, and we’re very proud of them, but we also believe that reducing the manufacturing, usage and disposal of any single-use packaging is an important step towards a more sustainable future.

These new reusable coffee canisters work in the same way as the Returnr cups, with a fully refundable $10 deposit. You can swap to a freshly filled canister every time you come in for beans, or you can keep using the same canister and we can refill it for you in-store.

Each stainless steel canister contains 250g of coffee beans – the same as our retail bags (which are still available, as usual). At this stage, we’re using these canisters to retail our Seasonal Espresso Blend and one filter coffee in all our shops. If demand increases, we will happily offer more coffees in these reusable canisters in the future!

We’re proud to be working with Returnr towards a more sustainable hospitality industry, and we’re so pleased that other Australian businesses are getting on board, too. If you have any questions about our Returnr program, please feel free to get in touch.

How do the bean canisters work?

When you come into any of our shops to purchase beans, you pay a $10 deposit for the canister; this will be refunded in full when you return the canister to any Market Lane shop. You can swap to a freshly filled canister each time you come in for beans at no extra cost, or alternatively, you can keep using the same canister and we can refill it for you.

Can you get the beans ground?

Yes absolutely! Just ask us, and we will grind them for you.

Are the beans canisters available online?

Not yet, but we hope to make them available soon! They are available in all of our shops. We currently retail our Seasonal Espresso Blend in them and one filter coffee.

What is the capacity of the bean canisters?

They hold 250g of coffee beans, the same as our retail bags, which are also available as usual.

What size are the cups?

We offer 8oz and 12oz size Returnr cups.

Are there lids to go with the cups?

Yes, we retail plastic lids for $5 each; these are not returnable or exchangeable.

Where can I return a Returnr cup or canister?

You can return them at any Market Lane shop location, or at our roastery.