Bega café and takeaway businesses respond to NSW government's ban on single-use plastic

Light-weight plastic bags will be banned from June 1, with a swathe of other disposable items including straws, cutlery, and polystyrene food containers to follow from November.

Minister for Environment James Griffin said single-use plastic items and packaging made up 60 per cent of all litter in NSW.

"Single-use plastic is used by many of us for just a few convenient minutes, but it remains in our environment for many years, eventually breaking into microplastics," said Mr Griffin.

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But for regional businesses, costs of more sustainable options were reportedly higher than what they're used to paying, meaning price hikes would be inevitable.

"We are going to change to paper straws and cups, but the thing is it's triple the amount than a plastic straw in price. A box that would cost me $100, would now cost me $300," Mr Vong said.

"When you put the price up the customer isn't going to be happy, I know it's good for the environment but if only the government could make those items the same price as the plastic ones there wouldn't be a problem at all."

He had already switched to paper bags and would be planning to introduce compostable cutlery from November, but had not yet found a solution for the plastic sushi roll packaging.

He said his younger customer base would be most likely to feel the sting at the register.

Coffee Stop Bega owner Michael Cootes said a range of products used in his café were already paper, bamboo, or compostable, but there would be some items like plastic coffee cup lids and straws that would need to be switched out by November.

The products used in his café came from bigger suppliers like Coca-Cola and so he would follow their directions when the new changes came into play.

He and his staff members also reported that some customers asked specifically for plastic bags and wanted extras as they were unable to access them elsewhere.

Mr Cootes was concerned about the usability of paper straws, which he thought too easily disintegrated in beverages such as thickshakes or frappes.

"If you try and suck a thickshake through a cardboard straw, you're going to get halfway through and going to want to chuck it in the bin," he said.

For other businesses like Café Evolve and Nook Tea & Espresso Bar, the move was already in line with their current business practices.

Café Evolve acting manager Emma Goward said the business had been single-use plastic free for a number of years.

"We switched out straws, takeaway cutlery, takeaway boxes, bags - everything is now paper, cardboard or compostable," she said.

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That wasn't all the business had done to create a more sustainable business model, with kitchen scraps used to feed a flock of hungry chooks, coffee buckets returned to sender to be refilled, and any single-use soft plastics that their products came in recycled at the Woolworths soft plastics return.

Ms Goward said the business also had plans to phase out plastic water bottles and make the switch to glass bottles that people were able to refill.

Nook Tea & Espresso Bar manager Brent Morris said none of their packaging was single-use and it had been that way for a few years now.

"It costs us a little bit more on the back-end, but it definitely makes me feel a bit better with the amount of stuff that goes out," he said.

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Mr Morris said at the moment the business was "copping" the increased prices on those items, however he thought customers were appreciative of the effort.

"All of our coffee cups, lids, and things that look like plastic are all actually the real compostable ones, not just the ones that break down into the teeny tiny pieces of plastic."

Since the NSW government was introducing the ban, Mr Morris said it would be beneficial for businesses to receive some assistance or tax relief to balance out those additional costs.