Sheila
Google
By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. For better or worse, it is up to both the customer and the business owner to stop plastic waste at the source.
Upon visiting this coffee shop, and looking around the room, it’s clear that most people have no idea to even ask for reusable mugs, which you do indeed offer.
While I am relieved you offer a choice to reduce trash, I do wish that you would communicate it more clearly and more regularly to your customer base, so that we can reset this awful, wasteful, cultural norm that has become muscle over the past few decades.
Perhaps that means the barista asking customer specifically if they will be enjoying their drink for here. Perhaps that also means offering a minimal discount to people who bring in their own mugs, and communicating that discount. Perhaps it could mean having a sign out that reminds people that they have a choice to be better to the planet, and that mugs are available at the shop.
I know having more mugs to wash could be a strain on a dishwasher or on the person doing dishes, but you clearly have some infrastructure to do so, since you do offer some meals in reusables.
In a neighborhood as progressive as this one, that also borders the waterfront, it seems absurd to me that this much trash gets created in one sitting, at one coffee shop. I hope you take my words as a kind suggestion, not as ridicule.
To current or potential customers reading this, know that you can ask for your coffee in a reusable mug, but you have to be explicit. And to the folks running the store, I hope you can do more to communicate this option to customers. We are our only hope when it comes to mitigating both the plastics crisis and the overarching climate crisis.
Thanks for your consideration!