Science Supports the End to the Reusable Coffee Cup Ban

In March, concerns about the coronavirus led baristas at Nossa Familia Coffee to change their approach to handling reusable mugs.

“We had to adapt quickly,” says Karen Lickteig, sustainability director for Nossa Familia Coffee. “We have really high goals for sustainability and zero waste and we wanted to be progressive about reusables.”

After reviewing all of the city, state and federal mandates for food safety, Nossa Familia asked baristas to make coffee drinks in stainless steel cups and pour them into reusable mugs instead of handling the ceramic or to-go mugs that customers brought into their Portland, Oregon, coffee shops. The “contactless coffee” experience was well received.

“We believed it was possible to maintain high levels of sanitation and sustainability,” Lickteig adds.

The Return to Reusables

Although contactless coffee options appear more robust overseas with cafes in Europe, the UK and New Zealand allowing customers to bring their own cups, several US-based cafes are also reintroducing reusable.

The Coffee Ethic in Springfield, Missouri, did stop taking reusable cups early on in the pandemic but owner Michelle Billionis changed the policy in August. Even though the scientific community has deemed it safe to return to reusable coffee cups, larger outlets, including Starbucks, are holding off on allowing reusable cups in their US locations.

Starbucks locations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East reintroduced reusables in August. It took “rigorous testing” to develop a contactless method. The new procedure “allows customers to once again use their reusable cups with confidence,” according to a statement on their website. The coffee giant has not announced plans to reintroduce reusables in the US. In September, McDonald’s locations in the UK announced plans to test reusable coffee mugs.

California reinstated its plastic bag ban in June and Price Chopper, a New York supermarket chain that banned plastic bags from its stores but reintroduced them during the pandemic, reinstated its ban earlier this summer. The readoption of plastic bag bans could lead to wider reacceptance of reusable coffee cups, too.

“We’re behind here in the US in terms of our cultural approach to reuse,” Hocevar says. “Businesses are following, in part, consumer demand.”

Hocevar also blames the cultural halo of health around plastics for the slow return of reusable coffee cups during the pandemic. The plastics industry, he says, “pushed the idea that reusables were dirty and the only way to stay safe was to use a cup once and throw it away or risk being infected.”

Fears about contamination led to changes to the reusables policy at Nossa Familia Coffee.

Lickteig thought the contactless coffee procedures implemented at the beginning of the pandemic were working well. But, after a brief closure that lasted from March to May, the Portland coffee shop reopened with a moratorium on reusable cups.

“We moved to all to-go cups,” Lickteig explains. “It made our baristas more comfortable because it got rid of the uncertainties about what customers might be bringing into the space.”

Four months after their reopening, baristas at Nossa Familia started allowing reusable cups for drip coffee but lattes and other specialty coffee drinks are only served in single-use cups. Lickteig hopes to reintroduce reusables for all coffee drinks as soon as possible.

“We hope that when they do come back, they come back with a vengeance,” Lickteig says.

Top photo by by Evgeniia/ Adobe Stock