Over a billion single-use coffee cups end up in landfill each year in Australia and most of the cups that don’t make it into landfill, end up in our environment.

Landfill’s greenhouse gases are one of the major factors for climate change and global warming. Coffee cups which don’t make it to landfill end up in our oceans, killing fragile marine life like turtles, dolphins and even whales -- washing up on shore dead with stomachs full of plastic waste.

Our waste situation is in crisis and if we don’t do anything about it, it’s only going to get worse.

The trouble is that most coffee cups are not recyclable due to a plastic waterproof lining and there is mass confusion about what to do with them.

The first option is to avoid this altogether by bringing our own keep cups. Many cafes have signed up to responsiblecafes.org offering a discount if you bring your own cup.

But take away coffee cups (and other single-use cups) still persist everywhere.

We need clear warnings on these 'so-called' disposable cups. Warning of the danger to the environment, like you see on cigarette packets about cigarettes endangering our health.

Warnings on cigarette packaging have worked very well in reducing the rate of smoking which is not considered cool any more. We need the same for takeaway coffee cups.

Please, let's have appropriate labelling on takeaway coffee cups now, to inform our behaviour before it’s too late!