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How You Can Make Your Coffee Use More Sustainable

February 25, 2020 0

Coffee is an ancient art. In the 16th century, it was being grown in places like Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. As far back as the 1600s, iced coffee and cold brew were being made in Japan; by the 1800s, Algeria also produced iced coffee and cold brew. In the 17th century, coffee finally made its way to Europe as well.

These days, coffee is everywhere and comes in many forms. But that is part of the problem. In modern times, we’ve become more aware of the impact of our disposable coffee cups, as well as the impact of certain planting and harvesting techniques for the coffee itself.

For those with an eye for sustainability, here are six tips to help make your morning coffee more environmentally-friendly.

1. Be Picky

Consider shaking up your routine by looking into coffee alternatives. Did you know 35% of people miss discovering a business because they don’t see their sign? It’s sort of the same with coffee. We can miss alternatives or more sustainable options simply because we’re not reading labels carefully.

Next time you are at the grocery store to buy coffee, take an extra minute to read the signs right before you. A lot of producers will include labels that indicate their coffee is produced more sustainably.

Look for indicative phrases like fair trade, rainforest alliance, organic, and bird-friendly. These are all certifications based on different criteria. For example, fair trade coffee tries to ensure growers and producers are treated fairly and helps protect land and waterways near where the coffee is grown. Decide what is important to you and find the labels that match that.

2. Find Local Sources

If you can get your coffee locally, that is always going to be a big step towards sustainability. The more your coffee has to travel to get to you, the more pollution and waste is involved in producing it.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to find local growers, independent farms, and regional roasters who can make you the perfect cup. As a bonus, you’ll be helping out a local small business.

3. Make Your Own At Home

Going out for coffee is always going to produce more waste than brewing at home, even if you’re buying coffee from a small local cafe. Brewing your own coffee at home is one of the best ways to reduce waste and it should save you some money too.

When making your own coffee at home, stay away from disposable, one-time-use cups. Instead, use a fair trade brew that you can scoop out of a bag. Those one-time-use cups are convenient, but incredibly wasteful.

And while you’re making coffee at home, use a mug! Invest in a great coffee mug that you can use every morning. By doing this, you will not only be reducing the waste from the coffee, but also from the disposable cups you tend to get at coffee shops.

4. Compost the Waste

One last tip for brewing at home: Compost. Tea leaves and coffee grounds are excellent compost. Coffee is actually a superb fertilizer because of the nitrogen content.

By composting leaves and grounds, you will keep waste out of landfills. You can even spread used coffee grounds directly on your garden if you don’t have a way to compost.

5. Reuse Your Filter

While you’re making your coffee at home, find ways to minimize your waste. You can not only reuse your mug and avoid single-use cups, but you can also get a reusable filter to cut down on wasteful paper filters.

Those paper filters aren’t just bad because they fill up landfills; they also sometimes contain things like dioxins that can get into watersheds. Reusable filters are much better for the environment.

However, if you do need to use paper filters, search for ones that are “total chlorine-free” or “processed chlorine-free.” This indicates that they won’t be full of dangerous dioxins that can get into water systems.

6. Tell a Friend

You don’t need to do this alone! Get a friend to go with you for your morning coffee run at a local restaurant or cafe. You could even buy mugs, reusable filters, and more sustainable and environmentally-friendly coffee together.

As you continue trying to change your coffee drinking habits, having a friend to commiserate with can be a huge help. Talk about the best brands or cafes you’ve found, what your long-term goals are, and tips you discover along the way. Sharing the experience can make it more like a fun challenge and less like a burden. You could even try some composting tips together.

A Better Routine for Everyone

No matter how you choose to go about having a more sustainable morning routine, even small changes can end up making a big difference. Don’t be afraid to start small before working on larger lifestyle changes to increase your positive impact.

How Drones, Coffee Beans, And The Queen of England Might Change The Way We Drive

November 7, 2017 0

Americans rely heavily on their vehicles, as the average American drives 29.2 miles every day. But many drivers are reluctant to substitute their conventional gasoline-powered vehicle for one that’s more eco-friendly. That might soon change, albeit in a more sluggish way than some other nations, due to environmental regulations, increased reliability, and some creative uses for caffeine.

In a recent report published in Consumer Reports, it was revealed that incorporating new technology and fuel efficiency efforts into traditional cars is actually making them a lot less reliable. In the magazine’s survey of 640,000 vehicles, the all-new vehicles or models with newly updated tech were more likely than older models to have a “wonky engine, jerky transmission, or high-tech features that fail outright.” Electric cars, on the other hand, fared quite a bit better, largely because many of these electric models don’t use the same mechanical systems conventional cars do.

So if they’re more reliable, why are Americans so resistant to buy them? Comparatively, the U.S. is behind the curve (or curb, as the case may be) in terms of exploring alternative fuels. Parisian officials recently announced the city will be phasing out the use of all fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030, with the entire country promising to do away with non-electric cars by 2040. And her Majesty, the Queen of England, just added more electric-powered vehicles to her already established eco-friendly fleet. But according to a study from April 2017, 70% of Millennials (presumably, American Millennials) don’t want an electric vehicle. Even though they’re actually less expensive to run and wouldn’t pollute the planet, it looks like the U.S. has some catching up to do.

That could be because amenities have yet to catch up with the electric vehicle industry. Charging stations are few and far between and charging takes much longer than filling up a gas tank, making it less convenient to go electric. The ever-innovative Amazon may have just come up with a solution, as the company recently patented a drone that would charge an electric vehicle as you’re driving it. The plans seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but so do self-driving cars.

Maybe Millennials would be more likely to embrace alternative fuels if their car required something they often use for their own energy supply: namely, coffee. Statistics show that Americans consume an average of 1.64 cups of coffee per day, but soon, our cars might need a java boost, too. Researchers at Lancaster University in the U.K. have managed to simplify the process of extracting oil from coffee grounds so that it takes only 10 minutes. The new process is also much more eco-friendly than extracting oils from corn or soybeans because it doesn’t require the use of harmful chemicals. Experts say that with this new all-in-one method, they could produce 720,000 metric tons per year. In the near future, coffee and cars could be even more of a match made in heaven than they already are (no comedians necessary).

Maybe one day, fueling up your car will be as easy as contacting a drone or emptying the remnants of your morning cup of coffee into your vehicle. For now though, the onus is on the individual to make eco-conscious decisions when it comes to their transportation, even when it isn’t always easy.