Designing Hospitality Spaces Around Reuse

A few years ago I started to look at coffee cups while living in New York. For no good reason other than I love my morning coffee shop stroll and my husband is an environmentalist. I’d proudly throw my coffee cup into the ‘blue’ side of the trash, thinking I was doing a good deed and helping the environment. I mean, there is even a coffee cup logo on the recycling bin - right? Turns out, it’s false advertising, and every poor piece of paper that was correctly placed in that bin just got diverted to the trash.

Coffee cups are a combination of paper and plastic. Since coffee is a hot liquid, making a cup completely out of paper would make sure you were drinking out of soggy paper mache, so they lined it with plastic.

Disposables were introduced in the 1950s, and since then it seems we’ve just gotten used to living our best disposable life. Disposable single-use containers (cups, straws, the beloved container that holds your takeaway truffle fries) contribute to a ton of waste and most of what you throw into the blue bin just ends up in the landfill too.

Check out this Vox climate lab video that goes through packaging and municipal waste. We’d say the biggest takeaways are reducing and reusing is better than focusing on recycling - plus your takeaway coffee cups aren’t recyclable anyway.

Coming from the industry, we know it’s tough to source alternatives or think through the operational challenges of getting guests to reuse or reduce consumption. It’s tough enough to implement a real recycling or compostables program.

We’d like to share a few cities and companies working to design reuse programs that we find inspiring and a good starting point to think through how to reduce or re-design takeaway trash systems for your business.

• Cupclub - A returnable food and beverage packaging system.

• Toronto coffee cups aren’t recyclable, but if you walk around the city you will notice bright-colored lids on takeaway cups. It’s not just for pizzazz. The Toronto recycling facility conveyor belt can’t differentiate black plastic lids. An important reminder to check your local recycling practices when designing a solution for your business.

• This Danish city is trying out a broad-scale circular economy initiative to reduce single-use packaging.

Colorful coffee lids and reuse programs might seem like tiny details, but they can have a big impact. Spreading awareness and starting with small, effective changes in your business is an impactful way to build a better future for hospitality.