A sustainable coffee to go

Bringing biodegradable containers to the table in Callicoon

By ANNEMARIE SCHUETZ
Posted 10/19/22

CALLICOON, NY — It’s common knowledge that restaurants generate a lot of waste, which just goes on to pile up in landfills.

But not at the Kitchen Table Café.

Mark Aubrey …

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A sustainable coffee to go

Bringing biodegradable containers to the table in Callicoon

Posted

CALLICOON, NY — It’s common knowledge that restaurants generate a lot of waste, which just goes on to pile up in landfills.

But not at the Kitchen Table Café.

Mark Aubrey and Leanne Cuiffo own the cafe, located on Lower Main Street. The restaurant is known for its commitment to sustainability as well as its coffee, house-made baked goods and meals made from locally sourced ingredients.

“In COVID, everything went to-go,” Aubrey said.

For the Kitchen Table, going to-go was how it went almost from the start; the café opened just before the pandemic hit. And during that chilly spring, people waited in socially distanced lines outside a window while café staff served coffee and tea.

But, said Cuiffo, the waste involved in to-go packaging was quickly obvious. So they sourced cups, straws and more that were sustainable.

Take the straws. And you can, without worrying about the impact on sea turtles.

“We purchased straws that are plant-based, in case a turtle eats it,” she said. (Sharp plastic can injure organs and soft plastic can cause intestinal blockage. And plastics don’t break down in the digestive system.) But the straws at the Kitchen Table “will be digested, because they’re plant-based.”

The café also uses recyclable products, and “we try not to get anything with too many chemicals,” and to use containers that are biodegradable or compostable, she said.

Take the cups, for example. They break down when exposed to heat, Cuiffo said. Such as the heat generated by a compost pile, or even within a garbage bag—useful for those who don’t compost.

The restaurant industry is responsible for a huge amount of waste—up to 75,000 pounds per year per restaurant, according to an article on mdpi.com by Minoo Tehrani et al., titled “Green Cities and Waste Management.”

But the Kitchen Table is doing its part to offset that. “We compost,” said Aubrey. “Food waste, coffee grounds… eggshells. We had 18 or 19 wheelbarrows full of compost” one year.

It’s a carefully chosen practice, he said. “Thousands of plastic cups go out each summer.” Imagine the trash pile that makes.

There are challenges, of course.

First, you find sustainable containers. But will your customers like them? Not everything is a hit.

Not everything is easy to source. “We had issues with bubble-tea straws,” Cuiffo said. “But we found one that’s compostable.”

And sustainable restaurant packaging is more expensive. “Corn-based cups are more expensive,” Aubrey said. “There are some very unique products out there—made of cut grass [for example],” but they cost more.

A cheap cup costs eight cents. A biodegradable one can cost 80 cents.

There are ways to avoid passing the cost on to the consumer. Perhaps a co-op could be started; containers could be bought in bulk and then purchased by restaurants, cafés and bars at a lower price.  

The more food businesses that embrace sustainable products, the easier it will get.

“It’s a fine balance,” said Mark Aubrey. “But I don’t think it’s hard” to make the choice for sustainability.

Some information came from biologydictionary.net/turtles-and-plastic-dont-mix/.

Kitchen Table Cafe, sustainability, recycling

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