To commemorate the UK's annual celebration of recycling, we're taking a look at sustainability in the coffee industry and our own green credentials.
Coffee and Recycling: How Cafe2U is Making a Difference
Taking place from October 16th - 22nd, National Recycling Week 2023 is Recycle Now's flagship event which sees governments, waste management companies, retailers, organisations and the media coming together to encourage the public to recycle as much as possible.
Managed by climate action group WRAP, Recycle Now is a charity that works across the globe to promote recycling, re-use, sustainability and waste minimisation, to great effect; National Recycling Week 2021 resulted in 82% of people saying they'd changed their behaviour as a result of its content.
How sustainable is the coffee industry?
The short answer is: it's hard to know for sure. Coffee is big business on an international scale, involving growers, roasters, importers, packagers, retailers, baristas and more. As a result, working out the impact on every inch of land used to grow coffee plants or the carbon footprint of every journey involved in transporting coffee worldwide is nigh on impossible.
The good news is that sustainable coffee itself (i.e. coffee that is certified as organic, fair trade or Rainforest Alliance as it has been sustainably grown and marketed to meet various social, environmental and economic standards) is becoming more prominent as more consumers actively seek it out.
How can we all make the coffee industry even more sustainable?
There are several ways. These include:
Recycling coffee grounds.
Normally, used coffee grounds are thrown in the bin, where they end up as landfill or in an incinerator. But did you know they can be recycled?
That's right, you can give your latte a second life by using used coffee grounds to:
repel insects. Simply put the used grounds in a bowl outside and burn them like incense. The grounds are very potent and will drive pests away in no time.
make fertiliser. Sprinkling used grounds - which are packed with key nutrients - on the soil surrounding your plants will encourage them to grow quicker.
help compost heaps. By adding some used grounds to your compost heap, you'll improve its structure and attract worms, which speed up the process by turning food scraps into compost.
eliminate smells. A handful of used coffee grounds in your fridge will absorb food odours and ensure your meals taste like they should.
clean your pans. A couple of spoonfuls of used coffee grounds are abrasive enough to clean the dirtiest of pans - just apply the grounds to a cloth and get scrubbing! Remember to check a small area of the pan first to make sure the grounds don't stain the surface though.
At Cafe2U, we let customers take our used grounds away for free during our annual Green Coffee Fortnight and we've also launched an innovative coffee grounds recycling initiative which sees waste coffee grounds being recycled into biofuel pellets to power biomass boilers, significantly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Using reusable or compostable cups.
By switching to reusable coffee cups, you'll help reduce plastic waste.
Most disposable coffee cups are thrown away and end up in landfill because they have a thin plastic lining which makes them difficult to process for recycling. Reusable coffee cups, on the other hand, will last for years if properly cared for. Even when they reach the end of their lifecycle, most can then be recycled and some are even made of recycled materials.
We do our bit by periodically giving away our reusable cups for free with certain purchases and we've set up a recycling scheme for customers who still use disposable cups. We also offer compostable cups which can be composted or recycled, reducing waste and ensuring fewer items are sent to landfill.
Avoiding plastic straws.
Like disposable coffee cups, plastic straws can't be reused and usually end up in landfill. By using recyclable paper straws, you can play your part in reducing the amount that literally ends up going up in smoke.
At Cafe2U, we've replaced plastic straws with biodegradable paper alternatives to reduce our carbon footprint.
Having your coffee delivered emission-free.
If you get your coffee delivered to your home or workplace, make sure you use a company that only uses electric vehicles - like us!
Yep, we were the first mobile coffee company in the world to introduce a fleet of all-electric, totally emissions-free coffee vans. By changing the fleet to electric power, we estimate we'll save a whopping 12,672g of CO2 per year.
Do your bit this Recycling Week.
While all these ideas are good news for the environment, they will only be successful if people adopt them, so why not support our efforts and help us reduce our carbon footprint by picking up a reusable or compostable cup next time you visit your local Cafe2U van and, if you could use some, take some of our used grounds away with you. You'll be helping us help the planet!
Find your nearest Cafe2U van here.
