Moreton Hall café helps customers reduce waste with their Keep Cups

Meet Lucy and Jess, business partners at The Coffee House, a popular café in the heart of Moreton Hall, which itself is a busy housing development on the edge of Bury St Edmunds.

When I dropped in with the family on Day 1 of Zero Waste Week, I warned them that Id start talking to them about ways in which they help customers reduce waste. I was particularly interested in the success of the Keep Cups that they sell, i.e. the reusable coffee cups, as shown in the photo below.

I noticed that theyd been selling these since the café opened in October last year. Priced at £7.99 for a small cup and £9.99 for the larger one, whenever a customer brings in their reusable cup, they receive 10% off the price of their drink.

The reusable cups have been a real success for the café.  Jess confirmed that theyve sold approximately 250 since they opened last autumn and normally have around 10 customers popping in with them each day.  As we were chatting I realised that I was holding up one of their customers whod dropped in for coffee and when I turned around, I couldnt help but notice that there in her hand was one of the reusable cups that wed been discussing.

(Charlotte, a Keep Cup customer)

Of course once the coffee discussion was over, my seven year old naturally brought my attention to his Zero Waste choice of the day....a selection of sweets from the sweetie jars on the counter.

The rest of his purchase wasnt quite ZW though.  Even though he declared hed try and reuse the straw from his small carton of orange juice and thatd hed be sure to recycle the little box, theres not a lot you can do with the protective plastic wrapper. However, that was negligible compared to the Capri Suns that he bought at the weekend and all round was pretty much of a success.  Im not sure about his older brother though, who insisted on the plastic straw to go with his favourite chocolate milkshake. Unless he reuses that a few times over, hes already behind in the rubbish stakes.


So if youre ever visiting Moreton Hall, whether its during Zero Waste Week or another time, be sure to pop into The Coffee House, where youll always get a very warm welcome and a discount if youve got your own cup.  And if youre a keen gardener, you can take away some free coffee grounds for your compost too.  Now that is a bargain!

The Coffee House, Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

More information about The Coffee House can be found via their Twitter stream @thecoffeehouse5 or their Facebook account.

If youre a regular coffee drinker whos looking for a replacement to disposable cups or run a café and are interested in saving landfill waste too, check out the reusable cups that are available at www.keepcup.com as well as the BYOcups that are sold by Onya. 

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This post was written as part of National Zero Waste Week 2011, thats taking place between 5-11 September. The theme this year is Reducing waste away from home.  For further details visit http://myzerowaste.com/zero-waste-week-2011/

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Branded corporate gifts that help reduce waste

 

 Catching up with The Green Desks Yasmin Halai-Carter at 
UKAware 2011

 
This weekend saw me scoot down to London again to visit UKAware, the UKs largest and longest running contemporary sustainable lifestyle exhibition

This was my third annual visit and I have to admit, it was a great excuse to catch up with some of my old friends and have a good mooch around to see whats new.  As ever, I came away buzzing with excitement over the amazing projects I saw, but having had a press pack for the first time ever - and having been accompanied by my six year old, who is a magnet for freebies -  I also noticed I was laden down with stuff!

And it really got me thinking about all the conferences and corporate events out there, where freebies are giving out willy-nilly, to get brands right under the noses of the people with the purse-strings.  Yes, Ive been used to a career packed with squashy balls, mouse mats, and laptop bags, not to mention the ubiquitous and equally useless gym-kit style bags to fetch them home in, with carrying strings that bury deep into your hands, but in recent years Ive trained myself well to refuse most branded clutter.  You know...applying that age-old mantra of REDUCE!

However, at UKAware I was intrigued by the alternative options that are now available for the more eco-conscious corporate merchandiser and naturally my antennae turned towards the cool stuff that actually helps people reduce waste.  I thought Id include some of my findings here.


BAGS

If youre giving away reusable bags at your conference or exhibition stand, thats a great thing to do right?  Well, yes, its a step in the right direction towards waste-busting giving, but wouldnt it be better if that bag was made from recycled materials in the first place!

Thats where Onya comes in, with its range of branded bags that are made from recycled PET bottles.  Ive been a fan of Onya bags ever since I saw them during my first visit to UKAware and I dont think you could get a bag that is more lightweight or which is so easy at being packed up.  It even comes with its own pouch and clip to make it easier to carry around.  For more details visit www.onyabags.co.uk.





GADGETS

It may be my inner geek shouting here, but I just LOVE these USB batteries that I discovered in my goody bag.  With a house full of remote controls, handheld game consoles, cameras and other gadgets, these energy-packed miracle workers are just the thing!  Again, Im a long term fan and have even been known to add some to my kids Christmas stockings and they love them too, as you just bung them into your USB slot to recharge, saving a fortune in batteries in the process.  As well as selling branded batteries, Ive noticed theres also a commemorative pack for the Royal Wedding.  More info about these funky little batteries can be found at www.usbcell.com.


STATIONERY

And heres another personal favourite, the staple-less stapler, helping to reduce the office workers dependency on steel.  This one is branded with the Green Desks web address, which also happens to be the company that sells them.  It comes with a great quote that reads "If every office worker in the UK used 1 less staple a day we would save 120 tonnes of steel a year".  Wowzer!  For more branded products like this, as well as everyday sustainable office items can be found at www.greendesk.org.uk.


So, Im pretty happy with the freebies that I picked up at UKAware this year.  It just goes to show that businesses dont need to give their customers ready-made landfill as part of their marketing strategy and can instead offer items that can actually save them money and help reduce their waste in the first place. You just need to find the right places to look and UKAware is just one of those places that is well worth watching for solutions that match your brands ethics.


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UKAware is now selling exhibition stands for its Bristol event, which takes place on 18th-19th June 2011.  For further details, please visit www.ukaware.com.  And if youve ever wondered where the organisation sources its promotional T-shirts, just check out ethical clothing company Pier32.
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Shhhh you heard it here first

Well, bang goes my life as a random and loose cannon housewife in Suffolk.

I suppose it was a matter of time really.

Yes, I bring you the news that having wandered off the streets of London into yesterdays AGM for the Zero Waste Alliance UK, I found myself wandering back out again as a newly appointed member of the charitys board of directors.

Yes I know.  Im still in a position of shock too.  Theres one thing being random, but give the woman a strategy and goodness knows whatll happen.

However, Im proud to be joining a board that has such a strong pedigree in the zero waste sector, whose membership includes individuals for whom Ive had great respect and admiration since I first discovered their work and achievements several years ago.  My sincere thanks go to the members who invited me to join as well as to the rest of the board who supported the motion.

For those who arent aware of the Zero Waste Alliance UK (ZWAUK), the organisation is an educational charity that actively promotes innovative resource management to help UK industries, societies and governments achieve realistic objectives for zero waste.   Established in 2002, it has a history of successes as well as key challenges under its belt and it is really exciting to have the chance to contribute towards new opportunities for the alliance to make its mark in drastically reducing the UKs waste output and how residual resources are managed.

I will of course keep you up-to-date with the work of the alliance during the months that follow, but for the moment I am just coming to terms with how I can contain my levels of randomness in light of such new responsibilities.

How exciting is that!

I look forward to sharing further news with you soon.  However, in the meantime, for more information about the work of the charity, please visit www.zwallianceuk.org.

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