In mid-2018 a coffee shop chain in Massachusetts, Boston Tea Party, decided to stop serving coffee in single-use cups.

Customers were welcome to bring their own reusable cups, but there would be no more disposable takeaways. Six months later, the chain says they have stopped 81,500 paper cups going into landfill.

Simon Benjamin and Daniel Lewis, owners of the Napier Quarter, are sick of crowds of people queuing for takeaway coffee. Credit:Justin McManus

When it comes to coffee, Melbourne always has to go one better, so the owners of a cafe in Fitzroy say they will stop serving takeaways altogether.

The cafe, Napier Quarter, is a little corner bar – marble-topped tables, dark timber, white-tiled walls and a very tasty-looking wine list chalked on a blackboard: exactly the kind of place you would like to linger over your coffee and strike up a conversation with a neighbour.