An East Village coffee shop is phasing out its single-use, to-go cups in an effort to become more environmentally sustainable.
DreiBerg Coffee (pronounced dry-burg), 111 E. Grand Ave., will join Horizon Line Coffee across the Des Moines River downtown in using only reusable cups for its coffees, lattes and other caffeine-based offerings.
Starting Thursday, DreiBerg Coffee will charge 25 cents for a to-go drink in a single-use paper cup. And beginning April 1 — Earth Day — it will eliminate its paper cups and only serve drinks in reusable, compostable cups.
"It makes sense that we should be responsible to the Earth, not just make money," said Andrea Cummings, who owns the shop with her husband, Ryan Cummings. "We have a responsibility to do something that's sustainable."
The shop opened in July using Butterfly Cups — paper cups that don't require a plastic lid. They are are more sustainable than other to-go cups but are not recyclable in Des Moines, so the Cummingses began to consider other ways to reduce the shop's environmental impact.
They landed on the phased-in, reusable-only program.
"As we have been going along and buying more cups because we’re selling drinks —which is great, that's our goal — we also know the thousands of cups that we're buying are ending up in the landfill," Andrea Cummings said.
By the time DreiBerg Coffee fully launches its cup reuse program, it will have used approximately 24,000 disposable cups, she said. According to Ecoffee Cup, the company that provides DreiBerg Coffee's reusable mugs, 500 billion disposable cups are manufactured each year, equaling 70 for every person on Earth.
The shop is selling $10 branded, reusable and biodegradable Ecoffee Cup mugs. Customers who don't bring in their own mugs, or purchase one from the shop, can pay a deposit on a reusable cup that will be refunded when it's returned. The Cummingses still are considering how much that deposit will be.
Andrea Cummings said the 25-cent up charge on to-go cups over the next three months likely won't be a huge incentive for people to start bringing their own reusable mugs. The company is hoping a phased-in approach will help customers adapt to the new program.
"But it also has brought up a conversation of why we're doing it and what's the point of it. So, we've already been able to have that conversation today" on the first day of the program, she said.
Horizon Line Coffee at 1417 Walnut St. has been serving its takeaway drinks in reusable glass jars since August. Shop owners Brad Penna and Nam Ho increased their coffee prices by 25 cents to accommodate the change. Customers who bring the jars back, or provide their own mug, get 25 cents off their purchase.
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Penna estimates about two-thirds of customers using the jars return them to the shop for reuse.
"It turned out really great," he said. "It just has changed how we function on the back end of things for us, but as far as the guest experience goes, I don’t think we’ve had too much resistance."
Like the owners at DreiBerg Coffee, Penna and Ho tried a series of products before adopting the jars. The shop started with traditional plastic cups, then moved to compostable biobased polylactic acid (PLA) plastic cups.
Penna said "it's really exciting" to see DreiBerg Coffee start its own reusable program. Since launching theirs, Penna said, he has spoken with coffee shop owners in Omaha and Kansas City, Missouri, who want to start their own programs.
He hopes the Des Moines sustainable revolution, though small, will encourage other businesses to consider ways they can reduce waste in their own companies.
"It's a shared responsibility," Penna said.
Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259.
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