Midtown Coffee Shop Announces New Environmentally Friendly Element Of To-Go Orders

A Midtown coffee shop plans to swap out an element of customers’ to-go orders.

Those orders come in the all-too-common throwaway coffee cups, but those cups have their days numbered at Elemental Coffee.

Those to-go coffees are one of the most mundane parts of customer Seaira Hull's day.

"I do find myself sitting here for a while and I'll take something to go,” Hull said. “I would say average three times a week.”

Elemental Coffee co-owner Allie Phillips-Shinn said disposable to-go cups carry a lot of weight with more than 20 billion of those going to landfills each year.

"That's paper cups that are coated in plastic,” Phillips-Shinn said. “That's plastic cups, and we know that plastic can take years and years and years to break down.”

The shop plans to swap the throw-away cups for re-usable glass jars customers can rent. They can also BYOC (bring your own cup).

"We're ultimately asking people to work with us to start pushing back on some of the bad habits that we as coffee lovers have developed around sustainability practices," Phillips-Shinn said.

Customers can rent the jar for $2 and get that money back when Elemental gets the cup returned to the register. They are currently in the process of the switch and are letting people know about it at the register. 

Some customers, like Hull, are already bought in.

"Right before I left one day, [I ordered] a fresh drip coffee. It definitely held throughout two hours, I would say,” Hull said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually useful.’ And they give you a cozy with it, so it's not hot, hot or cold. A glass cup could make your hand hot but they're thinking and it's cute."

Like coffee and cream, the cozy and jar are a pair and have to be returned together to get the money back.

"One cup and cozy, you're going to get $2 back,” Phillips-Shinn said. “If you're like me and you forgot that you have a handful and you have six or seven, you're going to get $2 back for every jar that you bring back," Allie explained.

Phillips-Shinn hopes their move gets other coffee shops to throw away their to-go cups, as well.

"We were inspired by Oddly Correct, a shop up in Kansas City, and we know that if we can be inspired by them, others can be inspired by us, as well," Phillips-Shinn said.

The complete switch to the glass to-go jars is Nov. 25.

There is a loyalty program for the sustainable cups, either a rented jar or a reusable cup brought from home, with a punch card. The 11th drink is free.