The East Side Cafe offers all ordered beverages in a free reusable glass jar

2021-11-10 03:39:25 By : Ms. Amy Zheng

Milwaukee-there are many ways to make your coffee exactly to your liking-change your milk, add some honey, and put a little extra froth on it.

But what if you want your coffee to turn green?

At Interval Cafe, they are working hard to do something good for the planet.

Now, every take-out customer can choose to skip the paper cups and plastic lids and use glass cups instead.

The owner, Ryan Hoban, said that putting every drink ordered in a reusable glass jar is the next step in trying to start an environmentally friendly business.

"We slowly discovered that you can't just talk about sustainability, you need to take it as a whole picture of what you do," Hoban said.

Most importantly, Interval does not charge a penny.

"We need to make it as easy as possible for people to accept it. So what we do is give them away for free, hoping they will come back," he said.

This is a trend that started on the West Coast.

As far as Interval's staff know, they are the first people in Milwaukee to try.

Because the explosion of coffee shops across the country means an explosion of garbage.

For each cup of latte or cold brew, imagine you are walking out the door with a plastic cup or paper cup.

Maybe you took a paper sleeve and of course a lid.

All these cups add up.

In 2019, a study estimated that we use 16 billion paper coffee cups around the world every year.

With so much waste in mind, Hoban said the jar idea is at least worth a try.

"I think this is the next experiment, right? I don't know this is a natural evolution, you will see Starbucks use a bunch of glass jars," he said.

But they may want it.

If jars become popular and people keep coming back to use them, Interval can actually make money.

Because Hoban will buy fewer cups to send out-destined to be thrown in the trash can.

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