Moreton Hall café helps customers reduce waste with their Keep Cups

Meet Lucy and Jess, business partners at The Coffee House, a popular café in the heart of Moreton Hall, which itself is a busy housing development on the edge of Bury St Edmunds.

When I dropped in with the family on Day 1 of Zero Waste Week, I warned them that I'd start talking to them about ways in which they help customers reduce waste. I was particularly interested in the success of the Keep Cups that they sell, i.e. the reusable coffee cups, as shown in the photo below.

I noticed that they'd been selling these since the café opened in October last year. Priced at £7.99 for a small cup and £9.99 for the larger one, whenever a customer brings in their reusable cup, they receive 10% off the price of their drink.

The reusable cups have been a real success for the café.  Jess confirmed that they've sold approximately 250 since they opened last autumn and normally have around 10 customers popping in with them each day.  As we were chatting I realised that I was holding up one of their customers who'd dropped in for coffee and when I turned around, I couldn't help but notice that there in her hand was one of the reusable cups that we'd been discussing.

(Charlotte, a Keep Cup customer)

Of course once the coffee discussion was over, my seven year old naturally brought my attention to his Zero Waste choice of the day....a selection of sweets from the sweetie jars on the counter.

The rest of his purchase wasn't quite ZW though.  Even though he declared he'd try and reuse the straw from his small carton of orange juice and that'd he'd be sure to recycle the little box, there's not a lot you can do with the protective plastic wrapper. However, that was negligible compared to the Capri Suns that he bought at the weekend and all round was pretty much of a success.  I'm not sure about his older brother though, who insisted on the plastic straw to go with his favourite chocolate milkshake. Unless he reuses that a few times over, he's already behind in the rubbish stakes.


So if you're ever visiting Moreton Hall, whether it's during Zero Waste Week or another time, be sure to pop into The Coffee House, where you'll always get a very warm welcome and a discount if you've got your own cup.  And if you're a keen gardener, you can take away some free coffee grounds for your compost too.  Now that is a bargain!

The Coffee House, Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

More information about The Coffee House can be found via their Twitter stream @thecoffeehouse5 or their Facebook account.

If you're a regular coffee drinker who's looking for a replacement to disposable cups or run a café and are interested in saving landfill waste too, check out the reusable cups that are available at www.keepcup.com as well as the BYOcups that are sold by Onya. 

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This post was written as part of National Zero Waste Week 2011, that's taking place between 5-11 September. The theme this year is Reducing waste away from home.  For further details visit http://myzerowaste.com/zero-waste-week-2011/

Day 4: Girls go shopping!

It's been a beautiful day in Moreton Hall... lovely sunshine and birds twittering...

... a wonderul summer's day, only be topped off by builders drilling and banging outside...

...followed by their intermittent sunbathing on the grass verge just in front of my home.

Crikey, now there's a view I'd rather not have.

So when my best buddy Lucy offered to whisk me away for some shopping, how could I say no.

We both love shopping and have spent many a day browsing around boutiques, interior design shops as well as creative havens of artistic delight.

But today was different!

We weren't off to the sparkling stores in Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich or Cambridge.

In fact, we didn't need to leave Moreton Hall.

Our destination was the St Nicholas Hospice Retail Centre, which is located in a warehouse just a few minutes away from our residential area. It's an amazing place full of good quality furniture and homewares.



I discovered this treasure trove a couple of weeks ago, and having spent many a shared hour being inspired by the latest wave of TV programmes such as Kirstie's Home-made Home and Mary Queen of Charity Shops, I couldn't wait to introduce Lucy to my new find! I knew she'd love it because as well as enjoying a good rummage, she's become more and more active in supporting charity work - even as I write she's preparing for the Race for Life this Sunday.

And what better timing could there be to visit than Recycle Week, when we are being encouraged to reduce and reuse as well as recycle.

I've been thinking a lot about charity shops myself recently, not just in relation to the benefits they offer but regarding how my attitude to them has changed over time.

When I was a student in the 1980s, I used to use charity shops a lot, looking for every opportunity to find something cheap that could be altered and would make me feel like an individual.

Then when I graduated and found a job, I left the charity shops behind and instead made sure my work wardrobe was kept up-to-date with the latest fashions from Next and Principles, switching to Per Una and Phase Eight as I grew older.

I found that the more money I earned, the less I depended on charity shops and if ever I visited, it would be simply to drop stuff off before running back out again, with the kind of embarrassed look that said "I'm only donating, I can actually afford to shop elsewhere, you know".

What a snobby twerp eh!

And yes, you do now have my permission to give me a tickle around the face with a wet fish whilst dangling eels over my head.

But before you do, let me at least redeem myself because these days you can't keep me out of such places.

I've since realised that my purchasing habits are no longer dependant on income or the pride associated with buying brand new things. For me, it's now the opportunity to buy things we need without impacting upon the waste stream and the environment. And by switching much of my custom to charitable causes, I know our money will be put to good use.

Of course, not everything I buy is sourced from a charity or thrift shop but it is the case that while Mr A may be found buying his bespoke-made suit at the tailors, I am usually busy in the charity shop next door.

And thanks to this, my favourite wardrobe items have been charity shop finds, including a fabulous pair of nearly new Betty Barclay boots that I picked up from St Nicholas Hospice's town-centre store for just £25 last Christmas. Indeed, I've seen so many good quality items, I've regularly come away speechless.

So this afternoon was one of those visits to find little treasures and support a very worthy cause that provides palliative care to local people and their families living with terminal illnesses. And I had no hesitation that Lucy would be impressed with the retail facilities.

While I came away with a brand new picnic rucksack, she picked up a few items including a stunning piece of art, which will look fabulous in her home and a Lion King video which her daughter has been wanting for over six months.

But we also came away making a pact to rummage through our homes for good quality items that we no longer need and have committed to dropping them off in a month's time.

It won't have the same impact as Mrs Green's massive decluttering exercise that's occuring over at MyZeroWaste - I don't think I could be that brave - but it will be a gentle nudge for us to get rid of some old things that we've both been harbouring. And by doing it together we can at least encourage each other along.

Now the one thing I haven't told you about Lucy, is that last weekend as her pledge for Recycle Week, she also agreed to let me help her whittle down her week's rubbish.

As well as taking her food waste off her hands she's also going to hand over the things that she's been unable to recycle in her blue bin. She hasn't yet revealed what she's got in store, so who knows what challenges I'll find. I'm not sure whether I should indeed be scared.

Well at least I've already sorted out her Tetra Pak problem, because the other thing I haven't told you is that she's married to "that man in the kilt"...

YES...Remember him?

For all those who missed it, here's the YouTube video revealing what actually happened to her cartons. With entertainment like this, I don't think she'll be throwing them in her landfill bin ever again!



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The Final Preparations for Recycle Week

So it's Sunday, the official day of rest, or so it's supposed to be.

But not for me, I'm afraid.

Despite it being Sunday, there were final preparations to support my pledge of helping those in my community to waste less during Recycle Week, which starts tomorrow.

Today this involved a visit to our local church - Christ Church - in Moreton Hall.




Now I must confess that even though I have a spiritual side and believe in God in my own little way, I am not really much of a churchgoer. So not being a member of the local congregation I initially felt shy about getting in touch regarding collecting cartons for Recycle Week.

Indeed I recall the telephone call I made to the church a few weeks ago. It came over a bit like this....all 60 words to the dozen - I do that when I get nervous.

"Uh...I'm a blogger who lives in Moreton Hall ...and I also write for the MHD ... and to cut a long story short I've been invited by the Recycle Now team to make a pledge for this national event called Recycle Week ... and then blog about it during the week itself...My idea is to see if members of the community can join in the pledge... and collect drinks cartons for a temporary bin that will be available in the Community Centre car park".

Phew...pause for breath.

"Do you think the church would be interested in joining in with the pledge?"

At last, the lady on the other end of the phone had the opportunity to talk. She said she'd take my number and speak to the minister, while I hoped I'd made sense and then crossed my fingers that they would think it a worthwhile idea.

I really needn't have been nervous. When the minister, Reverend Jonathan Ford, got back in touch, he said that the church council was very enthusiastic to get involved and were more than happy to support the pledge. So the only thing left to do was create a poster and drop off a bin for members of the community to use during Recycle Week.

And that's what I did this morning.

When I entered the church, the minister was coming out of the office. We'd never met before, but I recognised him from his appearances at our school and his photo in the local magazine. And with my arms wrapped around the bin, I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew who I was too. After all there can't be many people who arrive in church with a 50 Litre Brabantia in their arms.

It was great to receive such a nice welcome - not least to have someone take the bin off me.

But it felt a huge relief in more ways than one especially as I've been getting more and more nervous regarding my pledge.

You see, it's very different to the zero waste week challenge that I took last year. Then it was just a case of my family and our bin. All nice and private, apart from the blog of course.

The Recycle Week pledge is not an individual one, it's more about reaching out to others and promoting the topic of recycling in my local community. Being anonymous and minding my own business was easy but stepping out from behind the blog with the hope of inspiring others has been the hardest thing I've ever done in recent times.

But watching Reverend Ford place the posters up on the noticeboard and take control of the bin for the church lifted my spirits. Knowing how the Church of England and other faith communities are committed to taking action regarding climate change certainly left me feeling that this project is in very good hands.



So huge thanks to Christ Church for joining in and helping to support my pledge this week. I really hope it all goes well and I look forward to catching up with the results next week.

In the meantime, it all kicks off in the morning.

While the council drops off the huge collection bins, I'll be having fun in Ipswich,

I'm booked in for a pre-recorded interview with Town 102 FM at about 10.00, and then popping into BBC Radio Suffolk at 11.30 for a catch up with James Hazell on his morning show. Local Heart FM listeners won't be able to escape either. By all accounts, the Recycle Week story is lined up for both the morning and evening news following another pre-recorded interview I did last week.

So here's to what promises to be a really fun week. Good luck to everyone who's made a pledge. If you haven't managed it yet and you feel suitably inspired, please pop over to www.recyclenow.com to join in and of course keep dropping by through the course of the week to find out how I'm getting on with my own challenge.

Something tells me there will be a few unusual things happening around here this week.

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Blogger let loose for Recycle Week

So what's all it about then, this pledge of mine for Recycle Week?

To help others in my community waste less.

It sounds simple doesn't it, especially when you say it quickly. But what does it really mean?


Well I made some tentative steps yesterday by tagging some members of my British Mummy Bloggers community to help raise awareness of Recycle Week. And thanks to the lovely bloggers involved, they in turn have already tagged 15 other people, so hopefully that'll be a few more promises in Recycle Now's pledgebank by the end of today and hopefully even more will make their pledge tomorrow.

But do I stop there and just let the pledges automatically stack up?

Oh no...that would be far too easy for a someone such as me who likes nothing better than a challenge.


Choosing the pledge

I admit that when I was I invited on board as a featured blogger for Recycle Week, I pondered the list of pledges available and truly felt stuck! It was like dragging myself out of a quagmire, going this way and that deciding what I should pledge.

I already do all those things on the list of suggestions, even taking my bottles home with me if a bar or cafe doesn't recycle them. Better to take them to the recycling bank than let them get buried in landfill, I'd say.

Since last year's Zero Waste Week, we still have waste-free days and we've reduced, reused and recycled so much our rubbish amounts to just one carrier bag's worth, which is the equivalent of putting out a wheelie bin about once a year.

So hopefully you can see my predicament.

So for me it was a question of "How else could I support this year's theme of let's waste less?"

And that's when I had my light bulb moment, when I thought that as well as making a simple pledge on the Recycle Now website I could also put all my networks to good use, encouraging and enabling lots of other people to work together to also waste less during Recycle Week.

Community thinking

It wasn't a flash of inspiration, you'll understand. At my age it was more like the gradual glow given off by an energy-saving light bulb, steady but optimistic.

But I'm not an evangelist or an eco-warrior, so this challenge would never be about approaching people and quizzing them about their recycling habits and convincing them to do more in a direct way.

However I write for a local magazine, I'm a governor of a local primary school and I have a good relationship with our council and I wondered how this could benefit the community. Having been inspired by the efforts that have been made by residents in St Arvans, Monmouthshire, and more recently in Wenhaston, Suffolk, I thought it would be great to encourage all the people I know to work together to reach out to my local community in Moreton Hall, which is in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

But with so many messages about recycling, the first step was to find a simple pledge that most people could make.


What could we save from landfill?

We are very lucky in Moreton Hall as householders can recycle almost anything locally. Our local council, St Edmundsbury, is able to collect mixed plastics, as well as paper, cans, cardboard, foil and batteries. We also have a household composting collection and a glass bring bank is located in the centre of estate and at our local local supermarket, where we can also recycle clothing, shoes, books and carrier bags.

In fact, residents are great at the old recycling lark. Our dry recycling collection alone amounts to roughly 31% of our residential waste and that's before you consider compostable materials.



But as you know, there's always room for improvement and having spoken with fellow residents over the last 12 months, I've noticed the one thing that catches out many folk is the good old Drinks Carton. In fact there was a time when I didn't know what to do with them either.



We can actually recycle cartons in Bury St Edmunds. In fact if you look at the Tetra Pak bank locator and navigate to St Edmundsbury in Suffolk, you'll see our nearest banks are at Waitrose and the Rougham Hill HWRC, the latter of which is about a mile away from the centre of Moreton Hall.

However, while many people are aware of these facilities a lot of others aren't, and those who are aware don't always have access because of lack of time or even transport. Others assume they can be recycled in the blue bin collection, while many other people will put them in the landfill bin.

With so many misunderstandings over the fate of the carton, it seemed like a good candidate for profiling the Recycle Week message locally.

Getting the preparations underway!

So while many folk might be pondering their Recycle Week plans now, mine started about a month ago.

The first step was to speak to the local councils to see if arrangements could be put in place to support the carton idea. And the good news was that they were able to provide a temporary bin for Recycle Week at my sons' school AND at the community centre.

This was indeed fantastic news, because if next week is successful, it will save me having to cart several car loads to the local recycling centre. In fact the bins will be delivered on Monday, courtesy of St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

The next challenge has been to get community groups involved. This was a toughie because it meant approaching people with whom I've never spoken before. If it went the wrong way, there was risk I would get the reputation as the mad woman of Moreton Hall. I've already got a cat with one eye and I could see it had potential to become a legend of its own making.

However, I had nothing to fear because everyone was enthusiastic to get involved in the local Recycle Week project and have been busy putting their own plans into place to collect cartons to fill the temporary recycling bins.

Finally, there was the issue of communications. However, being a regular contributor to a local magazine called the MHD, I was able to work with the editor to announce the project to residents of Moreton Hall in a double-page splash. Here's the front cover promoting the news.




The fact that it goes to 2500 households means that hopefully it's a positive start. Here's the article in its full glory (click on it to enlarge it).





So who's getting involved next week?

Well it certainly seems a case of all hands on deck.

As well as residents being invited to drop off their cartons at the communal bin, the two primary schools, Abbots Green and Sebert Wood are organising carton collections, which will help support their eco-school plans. The Moreton Hall Prep School is also organising a collection as are the local church and the youth club. One of the Beaver clubs outside the local catchment is getting involved too and the community centre and post office will also be promoting the event by displaying posters and leaflets. It's great that everyone is enthusiastic about this project and I'd like to thank them for being a part it.

But it doesn't stop there, although the major preparations are now in place for next week, I've got my eye on a few candidates who I've not yet approached, but plan to very soon. And I've got some other ideas up my sleeve too. Of course there is also time for anyone else in the community to get involved and I would be delighted to welcome them on board.

In the meantime, I'm off to a WRAP waste industry conference tomorrow to find out the latest news in mixed plastics recycling. Shhh, don't tell them that a blogger has been let loose amongst the professionals will you? They might wonder what I'm up to.

So I guess that leaves me with just one last question to ask...yay you know I'm cheeky don't you!


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