How can a coffee business be sustainable?

It recycles, composts and reuses everything from glasses, straws, cutlery and more, to composting food waste and coffee grounds. If there are no traditional composting services in your area, consider partnering with local gardens or community farms and donating your compostable items.

How can a coffee business be sustainable?

It recycles, composts and reuses everything from glasses, straws, cutlery and more, to composting food waste and coffee grounds. If there are no traditional composting services in your area, consider partnering with local gardens or community farms and donating your compostable items. Some places will even pay for this. While coffee is a clear favorite, tea has arguably been the UK's most popular drink for generations.

In fact, Britons drink more than 150 million cups of tea every day, but nearly 96% of tea bags are made with polypropylene. This plastic resin is neither biodegradable nor recyclable, meaning that the environmental effects of a single cup of tea can last long after the jug is empty. We all know that the consumption of single-use packaging and its disposal are unsustainable. This is why many companies in the hospice sector started promoting the BYO (“bring your own glasses”) initiative.

According to research, the use of BYO cups in coffee shops in Australia has increased by 292 percent. From the point of view of sustainability, a good place to look for coffee from environmentally friendly producers is to look for people with organic credentials. With so many people enjoying several cups of coffee every day of their lives and the rise of cafés and coffee shops, more and more people are finding ways to make every cup of coffee cleaner, greener and more sustainable. Depending on the starting point, re-examining your coffee supply could help you achieve their sustainability objectives.

I hope this blog post about ideas for sustainable coffee shops has given you an idea of how your small business can be greener. This fact about coffee may surprise you: along with tobacco, coffee beans are one of the most chemically treated products consumed by humans. By adopting sustainable ideas in coffee shops, such as using biodegradable packaging and promoting reusable cups, companies can dramatically reduce contributions to landfills. In short, integrating waste reduction strategies and ideas for sustainable coffee shops is a smart investment for the future of your company.

Glenna Matthys
Glenna Matthys

Hardcore internet practitioner. Wannabe beer advocate. Infuriatingly humble beer expert. Devoted coffee evangelist. Hardcore social media scholar. Friendly beer fanatic.