Green Suggestions for Coffee Shops
by Ron Dembo, Zerofootprint on 04. 5.07
This week, Ron Dembo’s daughter, Justine, is writing in his place. Justine is a medical student at the University of Toronto.
I recently realized that the coffee companies of Toronto (and, no doubt, of the Western hemisphere) waste a tremendous amount. I noticed that my fellow medical students buy at least two coffees per day from the hospital Tim Hortons, and each time, they use a new cup, new lid, new straw, and so on. Plus, wherever I see a coffee shop in a mall, there’s no recycling bin to be seen anywhere nearby – and I doubt many people carry the used cup around until they find a bin.
Imagine the waste that could be prevented if people were to use refillable mugs….and better yet, if the coffee companies were to encourage that. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if the coffee cups could be recycled? Wonderful, but hardly a fantasy. Surely we’re at a stage in our civilization where recycling is not a great deal to ask for from people and companies claiming to be even the least bit green. The materials involved in the coffee business are actually recyclable in some places but, regrettably, not Toronto.
Fifteen billion cups of coffee are consumed each year in Canada. That’s 45 million cups a day. Leaving aside for a moment questions of procurement and fair trade, and questions of greenhouse gas emissions associated with food miles, there has to be a real opportunity here to make a difference just by giving a damn.
Given all this, I decided to send emails to three of the biggest companies in Canada: Starbucks, The Second Cup, and Tim Hortons. Below, I’m including the Second Cup version of the email I sent (I modified it for each company), and the replies from each company. Following the emails, I’ve included a follow-up and a new plan.
My Letter:
From: Justine Dembo
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 6:04 PM
To: Second Cup, Customer Care
Subject: Recycling at Second Cup
To whom it may concern,
My name is Justine Dembo, and I am a loyal Second Cup customer. I love many things about your atmosphere, uniqueness, independence, and of course your products. I am quite disappointed, though, to find that none of the Second Cup branches I have been to in Toronto (including on Bloor St., Yonge and Wood, across from University of Toronto, Yorkdale Mall, etc.) seems to have recycling bins. Given the fact that you pride yourselves on using recycled paper for your cups and cup holders, I'm very surprised by the fact that you don't make it a policy to provide customers with the opportunity to recycle these materials! I often keep my cup and bring it out to a nearby recycling bin, but I think you may be asking a lot if you expect all of your customers to do the same. As I'm sure you are all aware, people tend not to go to the effort of recycling unless it is very easy to do so – i.e., unless a big recycling bin is right nearby and visible.
You are definitely not the only coffee company that does not provide recycling routinely, but as a socially conscious company (with your admirable initiative to assist Foster Parents Plan, etc, and your loyalty to Canadian customers), I urge you to implement recycling in all your locations. It is a small cost to you, and a large benefit for our suffering environment. Well-reputed companies such as yours need to be leaders and set an example for the millions of others out there that are not environmentally conscious.
Another idea: I know you already give a ten-cent refund to customers asking you to refill their own coffee mugs, but I wondered if you might consider implementing a bit more of an incentive...for example having a card they can stamp where after 9 refills they can have one free...or perhaps get a discount on a Second Cup mug, etc.
An aside: if you are interested, my father, Ron Dembo, runs a company called Zerofootprint through which he assists corporations and individuals to reduce their impact on the environment in various ways. This company can also work to promote companies such as yours when they work to do this - you could have labels/signs etc. that advertise you as a "zerofootprint" environmentally conscious company. Several other Canadian companies have already signed on.
Thank you for your time, and I would very much appreciate a response. I, and several of my acquaintances would be happy to do anything we can to help you.
Sincerely,
Justine Dembo
SECOND CUP’S REPLY:
Dear Justine Dembo,
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Second Cup and I apologize greatly for the delay in this response. We take all customer feedback seriously and I'd like to address your concerns.
It is great to hear from someone so concerned with our environment. We at Second Cup also believe in doing our part for the environment. We recommend that all drinks consumed in our cafés be enjoyed in ceramic mugs to reduce the number of disposable cups/cutlery/paper products. Our stores also offer a ten-cent discount to customers who bring in their own refillable mugs. Our cups are manufactured of Polystyrene, which is recyclable where facilities exist (there is a recycling depot in Ontario). Unfortunately, there is no readily available pick up system for this product. In some locations, whole communities get together and organize drives to the depot. Our cups do not contain any recycled materials, however. Raw materials are 100% virgin FDA approved, ensuring the product is food/beverage safe.
Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
As a suggestion, please ask your father to be in touch with our marketing department at marketing@secondcup.com. His business might be of interest to Second Cup.
Kind regards,
Allison Campbell
Guest Services
Second Cup
TIM HORTONS’ REPLY:
Dear Mr. Dembo,
I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us at our Head Office. We always appreciate hearing from our customers and we certainly appreciate your care for the environment. Tim Hortons strongly believes we all have a responsibility to protect the environment. We agree that we have an opportunity to take a leadership role at this initiative and we are working hard to establish a recycling program that will work for all of our stores and communities. We are currently operating a recycling test program at eight stores in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. This program involves source separation, recycling and composting in both the store front and back of house. To date, we have reduced the amount of waste going to the landfill by 80% at the stores participating in this program.
While a recycling and composting program seems simple to implement, the challenge is much larger. There are no national guidelines to direct municipalities to consistently accept the same recyclable materials across Canada. For instance, while York Region is able to accept our cups in their paper recycling program, the Waterloo Region is not. Please know our team is working on a recycling program that will be consistent across our stores and will allow every community to recycle or compost our packaging. We are committed to working with our customers to ensure environmental stewardship. We offer a discount to patrons who use a reusable take-out mug, and provide customers with the option of using china mugs and plates when dining in-store. At Tim Hortons, we fully recognize that we are a neighbour in your community. Together, we can make a difference and keep our community clean.
Best Regards,
Deanna
Operations Services
The TDL Group Corp.
STARBUCKS’ REPLY: (the last to reply)
Dear Ms. Dembo,
Thanks so much for contacting us regarding your recommendation that Starbucks locations provide recycling bins for customers.
Your feedback is very important to us, so we appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. I want to assure you that I've passed on your comments to Corporate Social Responsibility department for their attention.
If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to call our Customer Relations department at (800) 23-LATTE. Or, email us from www.starbucks.com/customer/.
Thank you again for contacting Starbucks, we really appreciate it.
Best Regards,
Shawn Herdt
Customer Relations Representative
Starbucks Coffee Company
FOLLOW-UP WITH TIM HORTONS:
After the reply I received from Tim’s, I resolved to always use my reusable thermos mug from home when buying coffee. But I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: they may indeed allow customers to use their own mugs, but the employees seem quite baffled when asked to do so. Not only that, but several weeks ago, I spied the server first pouring the coffee into one of the company’s paper cups, before transferring that coffee to my mug! So how on Earth are they protecting the environment by filling reusable mugs? This completely defeats the purpose. A few days ago, I entreated the server to pour the coffee straight into my mug, rather than using a company cup, and she looked very confused. I’m a quiet person and I don’t enjoy causing a stir, but I had to ask her twice to prevent her from using the paper cup. She said that if she used my mug alone, she wouldn’t know what price to charge – small, medium, or large! So, in desperation, I told her I’d pay her the price of a large if she would just pour it straight into the mug. This seemed to confuse her further. She went to get the manager, who also seemed surprised by my request. She impatiently said, “OK,” and then proceeded to pour my coffee into a Tim Hortons cup, then poured that into my mug. Where, exactly, was I unclear? No idea. But clearly this company, despite its reassuring reply to my email, does not often do anything to reduce waste, even when customers go out of their way to do so! And have I mentioned yet that this mythical “discount” they told me they provide to customers who use their own mugs, has not once been given to me? All of this has left me feeling quite angry, and so my next step is to write to Tim’s again and ask what they plan to do about this.
See also: ::How To Green Your Coffee & Tea
I'd like to point your attention to the Green Restaurant Association, which helps coffee shops and all restaurants become more environmentally sustainable.
In May, the Green Restaurant Association will be certifying all US corporate owned Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf locations as Certified Green Restaurants™. This is the largest privately held coffee chain in the U.S., and we are helping them implement four environmental changes per year.
The Green Restaurant Association has tools for consumers to encourage restaurants around the world to become more sustainable. You can go to http://dinegreen.com/tipcards.asp to download suggestion cards to encourage your favorite restaurants to go green.
With the world's largest database of environmental solutionsf or the restaurant industry, the GRA has successful system to help both small restaurants and big chains. If you are interested in getting involved with the GRA in your city, contact our office at 858 452-7378 or email gra@dinegreen.com
By the way, the restaurant industry is 1/10th of the American economy and the largest consumer of electricity in the retail sector.
Sincerely
Michael Oshman
Green Restaurant Association
Executive Director
I vaguely recall that in some jurisdictions there may be a prohibition on using customer's cups for take-out service, some sort of health code concerns. Does anyone know anything about this? I can imagine that a store might not want to be responsible for putting their product in a container that may not be sanitary (i.e. they pour their iced coffee into a dirty mug, customer gets sick from drinking from a dirty mug - even if it's the one he brought to the store - and sues). Is this a valid concern?
Tim Horton's definately has a training issue here. When I order lunch at Tim's, they ask if my order is for here or to go. I tell them "for here" and they key that in - which I'm assuming is used to instruct the person preparing the sandwich down at the end.
But after that - they attemp to fill my coffee in a paper cup. I instruct them again that it's "for here" and I want a ceramic mug.
They they grab the donut off the shelf in a paper bag - and I have to instruct them again - "it's for here, can I have it on a plate". Last weekend with my family of 4, I had to tell the poor clerk about 15 times that "it was for here" to stop her from wasting paper, cups, etc.
This is definately and training and operational issue. Kudos to Tim's for having ceramic mugs and plates - most coffee shops don't.
Unfortunately, the Roll up the Rim to win contest at Tim Horton's is not all that eco-friendly either. To participate, you have to get a paper cup. Even if you dine in (and want a ceramic mug) or bring a travel mug - they often ask you if you want a paper cup as well. What they really should do is have a scratch & win card for those of us who don't use a paper cup. Don't even get me started on their double-cupping practice for black (hot) coffee because they don't have the holder-rings.
Kudos to Tim's for having recycling in many stores in Oakville and Mississauga. They are truly lining up to be better, they need some training though. Hopefully if enough customers start asking/insiting for a litterless lunch - we can be involved in that training exercise.
I ran into this in Tims, they just don't get the measuring thing. They need a giant shot glass to measure it out rather than throwing away paper cups, or perhaps they should sell a refillable mug themselves with three rings for the different size cups. and a reusable rim to roll up.
I think that each location is probably different in some aspects of customer service. The staff at Tim's that I go to seem to not actually care about the size of the travel mug and I have even seen the offer to wash the mug out fo customers before serving.
Also, try something like a reusable coffee cozy(http://psilology.blogspot.com/2006/11/yeah-for-free-green-publicity.html) to reduce the use of paper sleeves around takeout cups. The amount of coffee I drink (2x/month) doesn't make a travel mug a sensible choice, but when I do indulge, I know I have a coffee cozy in my back pocket or purse to avoid using an extra piece of paper to avoid burning my hands. Fortunately in Vancouver the recycling program takes paper cups.
You can buy my version of the coffee cozy made from industrial hemp scraps through my website at tumtumtreedesigns.com
Thanks and great post!
I'm the Green Mission Representative at my local Whole Foods Market and happen to be covering this topic in my thesis. Here's a list of things I have done at my store and beyond:
*cup reuse discount (once $.10 off, now the price of coffee is $.75 total with employee coffee being dropped to a tiny $.25)
*sale of reusable mugs at coffee bar
*retrained workers NOT to put a coffee clutch (stupid paper wrappy thing) onto drinks as customers can serve themselves if they really feel that it is necessary (this excludes our extremely hot tea)
*retrained workers to ask "Do you NEED a lid on this?"
*bought sugar shakers and began buying sugar in bulk to refill them with (eliminated little packets)
*bought all employees a reusable mug and distributed them with a Green Mission pep talk
*established REGION-WIDE orientation component where new employees are given a reusable mug and told about Green Mission program/company standpoint
-Note that this meant arming 150-200 people who are typically in the store with reusable mugs. We hope for reuse to be perceived as a norm and be adopted by our customer base.
*we began offering/advertizing our coffee grounds for customers to take for FREE for their compost/gardens.
In the future, we plan to establish a system of reusable in-store mugs as well as source coffee cups with a bio-based resin so that they can be composted.
Dawn
If these companies really wanted to encourage recycling they would offer to fill any cup that fits under the dispenser for the price of a small.
I don't go to Starbucks much but lately when i have I've brought my travel mug with me. The staff is accustomed to this but they look on the bottom or ask me if I know the volume (I don't and it's not listed but the cup is of normal size). I wish they would be sports and charge the lesser rate to refillers. Once word got out that you could get a large for the price of a small I think you'd see lots more people bringing in their own cup.
I was at Starbucks today and bought a mug (it was pretty and I didn't have one of my mugs on me) and asked them to put my latte in it *because I didn't want to waste the paper cup*. I was standing around for it and got to watch the barista fill a paper cup with my drink then pour it into my mug and throw away the paper. Yikes. and boo.
I'm from the West Coast and in a University filled with tree-huggers, so perhaps we're the exception, but coffee shops here (the locally-owned ones) do quite a bit to cut back on waste.
The places on campus list where everything can go (lids in the recycle, stir sticks in the compost, tea bags in the compost) and even have clever signs reminding you to put things "where they belong".
The coffee shops that I work at encourages travel mugs and they're all filled to the top and charged as small or regular no matter what.
I think managers and owners need to see how much money they can save by encouraging people to bring their own travel mugs. We've cut back on our cup costs noticeably (our supplier commented) and it's a really viable option.
That said, after reading this article and visiting a Tim Hortons in a hospital, I was very quick to notice that there wasn't a recycling bin in sight. Very sad...
At my school coffee shop they use short pastas (like linguine) instead of those little plastic stuff to mix milk, sugar and cofee. That's so much a great idea and so much more green.
Thank you all for your amazing comments! I think I'll follow up the companies' replies with some of your suggestions and see how they take it. I'll try to get any new developments posted on the site.
Hello everyone, love to hear about anybody wanting to minimize waste. Just wanted to let you know that our shop is on top of things! If you ever come to Portland, Oregon stop by and see what great things are happening.
It's awesome, we reduce, reuse, and then recycle. We even compost!!!!
Our menu's are written on the back of cardboard, we use the back of all paper to leave notes. We compost coffee grinds, I even take home the left over grind from the espresso machine to make our coffee at home.
We buy local. Most of the pastries we do receive come in bins, opposed to extra packaging.
The Waypost is about to get a certification to become a sustainable company, and will be in the sustainable industries magazine. Oh and we have trained many customers to bring their own mug!!! It's the only way!
We are also looking into purchasing biodegradable cups, I'm just try to find something as local as possible. Oh did I mention we usually walk or bike to work! So their is hope for coffee company's, and shops to become sustainable. Maybe some of these bigger companies need to model off of some of us smaller businesses. Or maybe we just need to start supporting local coffee shops and say goodbye to corporate coffee!!
Keep It Green
Carrie Rondo
Cafe which know what they're doing, will actually waste a bit of water when you bring in your own cup, by heating it with hot water they use for tea, or from the expresso machine.
The problem the Horton's company people are having, is it's their job to make sure they're pouring the correct amount. They don't want to fill a 20 oz. personal cup, if you've paid for a 16 oz. cup of coffee, so you might put a piece of colored tape at the 16 oz. point in your cup and let the order taker know what you're doing. Or use a Nalgene bottle which is translucent and has oz./ml. measuring lines; the same as a measuring cup.
You're introducing something new, this means there will be a learning curve.
I've always found it surprising that the smaller independant coffee shops here in Toronto all seem to use styrofoam cups as well. Maybe this isn't the same material exactly, but didn't McD's phase that out of their packaging about 15 or 20 years ago? You'd think the smaller shops would use something a little friendlier considering their clientele are probably more likely to care about such things. The University of Toronto (where I work) actually does recycle styrofoam on site however, so I usually just hold onto my cup until I'm back on campus.
In spring of 2006, when Salt Spring Coffee Company sponsored a competition between students at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia entitled: "How to Reduce Coffee in a Coffee to Go Industry - The Disposable Cup Issue". Since then we have continued to become experts about how to reduce paper cup use at the Retail level, which "take out" cups are most environmentally responsible, and what is the best way to deal with the cups once used.
1) We train staff to serve customers in ceramics when they are staying at our cafes. However, there are other issues, including the energy used to sterilize in a commercial environment, breakage, theft of ceramics and flatware, and the price/availability of Fair Trade ceramics.
2) A better choice is to encourage customers to bring their own mug and take it home to wash. Here are suggestions to encourage this:
- Train staff to ask, "Have you brought your own mug today?" This both starts a dialogue, and implies that it is the common thing to do.
- Offer a cup discount for customers who bring mugs, or, better yet, charge a "green tax" at the check out for folks who don't have their own.
- Offer a range of prices and styles of travel mugs for sale near the check out. Screen this merchandise for Environmental and Social Responsibility standards. Perhaps offer a free fill with a purchase.
- Post a prominent sign near the till encouraging customers to bring their own mug and receive a discount.
-offer company staff discounts only when non disposable cups and tableware are used - (walk the talk)Offer company staff discounts on travel mugs.
3) Disposable cups. There are a number of different types of cups available. The most commonly used paper cup currently out in the market is manufactured around North America and distributed through Solo or Dixie. It is made from virgin paper and coated in a petroleum coating to stop leaks. This cup is not readily recyclable, although consumers can sometimes slip these in with milk cartons and tetra packs.
We do not recommend any type of plastic(petroleum) cup at this time, whether or not recyclable.
There are other types of organic fibre cups available, such as sugar cane, but these are not competitively priced.
We applaud Starbucks in having the clout to push the industry to start producing a paper cup with 10% recycled fiber. I understand this is the maximum recycled paper fiber allowed in consumer food service containers, but I'm not sure. Ironically, still not commercially recyclable where we live.
Happily, a new paper cup with a PLA coating is now on the market. The "Ecotainer" is a completely biodegradable cup with a coating made from corn. The three biggest issues with this cup are that it is produced by a company called "Natureworks" - a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, most likely using genetically modified corn.
The second issue is that the recycling folks have no way of easily identifying paper cups which are biodegradable from those which aren't.
Third....there aren't that many commercial composting facilities. So, as a coffee company, you have to rigorously develop a disposal chain. (Expensive)
All of the above does not even get into whether the plastic lid is recyclable, and whether you use it with a sleeve......
Over all, I recommend you have on hand several travel mugs you actually like, in several locations: car, home, work, etc. and use them.
Alicia
This comment only pertains to the question of how much to charge/how big is your cup.
(confession: i don't have time to read the comments so this may have been answered)
I worked at starbucks for a while and the way I used to do it was take a cup (preferably the size I thought the cup was) fill it with water and then pour the water into your cup. Then I would know how much your cup held and since only water was in the other cup I could reuse it for someone else's drink.
And if you were a repeat customer I would only need to do it once and then I'd know. Not really that big of a deal. Maybe you should drop some knowledge on your local baristas.