Path 1: Andrea, Roberto and Sam discuss sustainable coffee pod options for their SMB
Andrea moves toward the coffee machine to make herself a cup, but upon pressing ‘Start’, she is notified that the pod basket is full. “Darn, full again. I am always having to empty this basket,” she said as she loudly dumped at least a dozen plastic coffee pods into the trash.
Roberto responds, “Look at all that plastic, right in the trash. Can’t someone make a more sustainable coffee pod?”
Sam answered, “I once read that the amount of coffee pods discarded in one year could circle the earth more than 10 times and that those things take more than 500 years to break down in the environment. Can you believe it? But sustainable coffee pods are not fiction! We should look into options available to us. If our municipal composter supports composting a certain type of material, I know there are compostable coffee pods. I saw them in my big box store last week. Heck, I heard the coffee isn’t half bad, either. Admittedly, they are a little more expensive than plastic pods, but we’re already paying for the composting service so may as well take full advantage of it. I heard that the pod components are now fully recyclable, but someone would need to pry apart the plastic, metal and paper components and recycle them separately. No one here would do that on top of their day jobs.”
Andrea stated, “I’ll need to call our municipal composting service to see if they can support the composting of coffee pods. I hate to see so much plastic go straight in the trash.”
“We should also seek the feedback of our colleagues,” Sam added. “We don’t want a dissatisfied workforce if they hate the coffee in the compostable pods. Also, people like to feel heard and part of an effort.”
“Good thinking,” Andrea replied. “And it isn’t like the coffee made using our current plastic pods is all great, in my opinion. But it is what people are used to, right?”
“If not, another option is to engage with a coffee pod recycling service,” said Sam.
“Those exist?” Roberto asked.
Sam stated, “Yep! You just put the pod in a box, grounds and all, and send it back to the vendor. They remove the grounds and recycle the plastic. There’s a charge and you need to ship the box back, so some carbon impact there, but still better than dumping a bunch of plastic into the landfill.”
“Wow, we have some great options!” Andrea exclaimed, as she stirred her coffee with a plastic spoon, then dumped it in the trash.
“OK, now let’s see if we can tackle the plastic utensils problem,” Sam said, stopping Andrea mid-sip as she recalled the single-use spoon she just used for five seconds and discarded.
“Oh, um … yeah, that would be a great idea. I used to bring my own utensils to work but took them home during the pandemic and keep forgetting to bring them with me when I visit the office,” Andrea stated.
Roberto added, “We had a BYOF—bring your own fork—campaign pre-pandemic, we should try to do it again now. But wait, plastic utensils are just plastic; can’t we recycle them?”
Sam replied, “Probably not. I’ve looked into this for my home. Most recyclers around here don’t take plastic utensils, because of the type of plastic they are made from and because they jam the machinery.”
“Lots of festivals these days require vendors to use only compostable utensils. Can’t we just get some of those and toss them in our municipal composting bin?” Andrea asked.
Sam sighed, “If only it were that simple. The larger cities that require events to use compostable utensils can make that requirement because their municipal service accepts most common compostable utensils. A suburb like ours may not have such a service. You’d have to call the municipal composting service first.”
Roberto replied, “OK, then what other options do we have?”
“Well, what about bamboo?” Sam asked. “No concerns with composting there as they are made of a completely organic substance—bamboo wood. Maybe we start with a pilot program in our largest office then expand to the other offices that have municipal composting. I know it will take a while for us to get through the large backstock of plastic utensils, but we can put the bamboo utensils out in the offices that have municipal composting and maybe shift the plastic utensils to offices that do not.”
“You mean, along with the renewal of the BYOF campaign, right?” Roberto joked. “That’s the easiest, cheapest option. We know we can’t always rely on people to bring durable utensils to work, but if we can get even half of the colleagues to remember, that might make the bamboo utensils cost-effective. Let’s not have perfect be the enemy of the good, here. It’s all about implementing change, one person at a time!”
Key Considerations
- Improvement, not perfection, is the name of the game when starting an environmental program.
- Some improvements may cost money, so start with a pilot program in one office, gauge adoption, then decide when and how to expand implementation.
- Just because something is marked compostable or recyclable does not mean that your municipal composter or recycler will accept that item. When in doubt, check the vendor’s website. If uncertain, call them.
- Creativity is key! Learn to pivot from excellent to good options if necessary to maintain employee morale. No one needs a mutiny due to the unavailability of a favorite coffee blend.
What would you like to do next?
- Back to original story
- Path 2: Andrea, Roberto and Sam discuss ways to reduce their SMB’s printing of paper—some net savings
- Path 3: Andrea, Roberto and Sam discuss improving their SMB’s recycling program—no additional cost
