For me flying from ZQN to YVR (and then a drive or seaplane home to YWS), the environmental impact of me not having a takeaway coffee cup or two from the lounge pales into insignificance with the amount of personal carbon emitted. It's likely on the similar scale as a theoretical passenger on the Titanic using an Airnz takeaway coffee cup to bail out incoming water. My daily driver here in Canada is a full size SUV with a 6.2L V8. My understanding is that for me to fly J return from North America to NZ I need to drive about 17,000km in this particular vehicle to generate the same amount of carbon as I do taking those flights. A re-usable coffee cup is simply green-washing.

Speaking from experience in the hotel industry, using in-house washables vs paper disposables don't necessarily represent a significant cost saving. Disposables are exactly that - users tend to either self- transport off premise, or self-dispose in an in-premise receptacle. Either way your staff don't usually have to do much with a paper cup once handed off to the user, if they need to touch them again at all. Contrast with washables which are left on tables, requiring additional staff to recover them on a timely basis in order to release the table for the next user. Staff member have to sort, place into a dishwasher, remove once clean and transport back to the barista. It can make sense in a small cafe, but in a larger operation with significant transient customer throughput such as the AKL lounges I'd be surprised. Staff salaries are $$$, even for dishwashers.

What I actually think is going on here is that Airnz is trying to reduce the overall number of Koru lounge coffees being served, and likely the number of people in the lounge itself, by pushing those who just need a coffee on the go away. I also wonder if the likes of AIAL have been pressuring Airnz to remove the takeaway coffee option in order to increase spend at their terminal vendors.