Category: Sustainability

Or rather Nick’s ramble about disposable coffee cups 

Compostable cups seem to be much more common place now, places specifically marketing that they have them in to become a much more sustainable cafe/coffee house. It’s certainly a step in right direction, but it’s not the whole story. Firstly, which we won’t go into much here, it’s only one of the many questionable environmental issues we face in food and drink industry – electricity, food waste, water, plastic bottles, transport. Secondly, and what we will concentrate on here, what does compostable mean in relation to disposable coffee cups.

Disposable coffee cups can have various labels with different understanding for waste management. There is old skool cheap as chips disposable cups – made of of cheap paper and plastic lined that cannot be separated for recycling purposes (especially when food stuff on liner); disposable FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) paper cups, with plastic liners; biodegradable cups, and compostable cups. Then there is plastic lids – both non and biodegradable, and compostable. Biodegradable can be one of two things, a different word for compostable (which is problematic) or plastic linings that will degrade over time; this means it degrades over a short length of time, but leave micro plastic in soil or river systems – not great. Compostable means particular type composting (open windrow composting), with many councils not accepting in their green bins and treating it as a contaminate (Can I include Vegware in my household food waste collection? – https://www.vegware.com/uk/page/faq/#composting). Compostable cups will not disintegrate any quicker than old skool cups in a non aerated landfill or disappear if dropped as waste on the ground. Since starting the business in 2016 we have often composted in compost bins – this is the result.

Since starting B’spoke we have always said that we prefer people to bring their own cup, and we’ll take 25p off that brew. We have considered only using reusable cups, but realise that it is not always feasible for everyone all of the time. After the first lockdown we stopped using reusable cups full stop until we got new systems in place. 

We use compostable cups at B’spoke, we using various brands from Decent to Vegware, all having the same compostable make up – all with the same additional price tag. We are aware that they will go in normal bins (landfill) or worse dropped on the floor. However, at least we know that the make up of these cups have more sustainable origin – renewable wood for paper, plant-based liner and plant-based lids. 

Over the next 12 month we hope to reduce the use of disposable compostable cups (we’re not going to put a number on that yet), marketing the reasons to use reusable much more of the time and making reusable cups regularly available at our little shop. Free drink with every cup and then 25p off with the use of every reusable cup thereafter. Or just dig that old one from the cupboard, we don’t care we’re just happy to to save using a compostable cup and saving you 25p. 

We currently have a selection of Keepcups both 6oz (perfect flat white size) or 12oz (hang on aren’t your large cups only 10oz) from inexpensive reusable plastic ones to reinforced glass with rubber or cork band to the super-dooper thermal steel ones (I want one, but I already have loads of reusable cups). So bob down grab a Keepcup and get a free brew!

I wrote this in 2016 after the third Manchester Coffee Festival; I am only now publishing. Not really re-edited it and I guess some of my thoughts may be different now. Always was a brain dump more than anything else. Anyhow, still a piece that can get us thinking about sustainability in speciality coffee. I’ve included some thoughts from Vegware’s Kate Chambers from 2017.

What I’ve learnt, what I’ve discovered, what I’m thinking

So the big thing in the news is the amount of non-recyclable disposable cups that just go in the bin. At the Manchester Coffee Festival, Vegware’s Kate Chambers spoke about how regular disposable cup cannot be recycled because of the three elements that make up the cup – paper, plastic coating and food waste (the coffee or tea). These components, as yet, cannot be separated and be recycled individually (Kate – In the last year, there has been some progress. There is now a company offering to recycle plastic-lined coffee cups in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39479006
This service is expensive, and also does not recycle cups into new coffee cups, but in to a host of different low-grade plastic products: http://www.simplycups.co.uk/). Compostable cups on the other hand all fall into food waste – paper, vegetable based coating and coffee/tea. Over time they should deteriorate, even if they end up in a landfill (Kate – really interesting misconceptions about what happens to materials in landfill. Have a look at the work that has been done excavating modern landfills: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/13/nyregion/seeking-the-truth-in-refuse.html?pagewanted=all
Modern landfills are designed to stop materials breaking down, since they do not have any oxygen to start the process. It is beneficial that materials do not break down in landfill, because then methane is not released into the atmosphere). However, wouldn’t it be good if these compostable goods had another use after the drink? Speaking to one of the local allotments around me we have discussed giving what used compostable cups are left with us to use to plant seedlings (Kate- Has this local allotment considered community composting? In-vessel composting is the preferred treatment method for Vegware and food waste after use). These cups will disintegrate in the ground allowing the seedling to grow into a plant. Using non-compostable cups, the plastic deteriorates and goes into the soil – not good. Compostable cups will actually add some nutrients back into the soil. We have also organised (the classic) giving our used espresso grounds to the allotments to use as compost. Coffee grounds are also a good deterrent (ref) for slugs.

However, what is even better than compostable cups though are reusable cups like Ecoffee Cup and KeepCups that are specifically designed for coffee (and tea). But how do you get people to use these cups? Easy, customers buy a reusable cup from you and get a free drink first time, and then afterwards they receive a meaniful discount each time they reuse the cup. Something like an Americano for £1.50 compared to £2 in a disposable cup (or say 2.20 from 2.60 with higher overheads). You’d have to the maths, but it’s about doing reusable cups at a sizable profit, remember less would be spent on takeaway cups.
Another consideration is the bags our beans come in. I thinking of asking my regular roaster if they can reuse my old bags; as far as I know it shouldn’t affect the beans if previous the coffee had not been ground. I also recently discovered Biotrē® Eco Coffee bags by PBi. Biotrē® Film is composed of 60% (by weight) biodegradable materials made from renewable resources such as wood pulp, the other 40% will breakdown in 5 to 10 years. This is a lot lot better for the environment than regular bags.
Over the last few months I have worked at several different places doing café work, while waiting for the business to start. I’ve discovered that recycling is a bit of nightmare, both in terms of it not being done, but also the lack of ease of which to do it. I believe it is imperative that the whole staff team are on board. It should be a key part of supervisions with staff (do we do that in coffee houses?). It is also important to remember that coffee houses can be busy environments, it has to be easy or it won’t get done.
(Kate – Good recycling really depends on what materials you want to recycle! So many of us are buying products in low-quality plastic, e.g. films and mixed material, which do not have any value in recycling. Also, we are facing a recycling issue because China – who has been recycling the majority of our plastic/paper – will not accept any more waste or recycling from any country in 2018: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-bans-foreign-waste-but-what-will-happen-to-the-worlds-recycling/
This is going to cause even more of a nightmare! I absolutely agree that REDUCING packaging waste is the best thing to do. Your ideas of encouraging reusable cups is great.)

I think it’s amazing that Heart and Graft based in Salford use @ErrandTrike to deliver their coffee to coffee houses in Salford and Manchester.

I wonder whether a lot of cafes/coffee houses realise that councils, for an additional charge, will organise your waste into the correct recyclable materials for you. This means you can just put everything in the same bin and not worry.

Environmentally sound cleaning materials – I hate how much blue roll we get through in the catering industry.

Milk, I’m at a loss here. Matt Perger once did a post on his blog about making cheese from waste milk, that’s a lot of cheese. I suppose making sure you use the exact amount of milk is the best idea, but this is not always practical, you get too much foam not concentrating, splitting milk from larger pitchers. We could top up pitchers and reheat, but this is understandably frowned upon, especially if it’s not extremely busy.

I really like espresso machines that have eco where you can turn off heat to group heads at quiet periods, for example, the Conti Monte Carlo and San Remo Verde.

So to end holistically about sustainability it’s not just about disposable cups!