KeepCup, a line of reusable coffee
cups she fell in love with on Instagram.
While Diamond supports the use
of compostable products (Starbucks
recently announced plans to serve
100% recyclable and compostable cups
within three years), she sees them as an
interim step towards a more conscious
consumer culture. “Many people don’t
realize that these products have to be
composted, and in many places, there
isn’t even the infrastructure to compost
them. For instance, most offices or
cities don’t have bins. To me, it doesn’t
feel like a long-term solution for the
planet. We need to change our culture
of disposing things.”
Her immediate goal? To boost
the number of customers bringing
a reusable cup by 100 each month.
“Ultimately, that’s the swap, getting
people to bring their own cup,” she
says. She and her team are constantly
tracking and tweaking as needed: In the
past five months since launching the
project, Diamond says the cup discount
for her shop has been used 2,057 times.
While the problem of plastic can
seem insurmountable, Diamond isn’t
discouraged. “Right now, I’m all about
the little victories. Every time somebody
walks in who’s a regular and says, ‘Hey,
because of you I got a cup!’ it’s a step
forward, because each person who is
excited is causing a ripple effect.”
Diamond believes in setting doable
goals instead of trying to be perfect.
“There are so many little things we can
do to live a greener life,” she says.
A greener cup of joe is one of them.a greener you
cleaneating.com 37
SARAH KAECK
Founder, Bee’s Wrap,
Bristol, VermontWHAT IT IS: A reusable
and compostable
alternative to plastic
wrap that also happens to
be irresistibly chic.
Sarah didn’t set out to
create a company. Rather,
this mother of three
(and gardener and goat
keeper) was inspired
by a simple question:
How can we eliminate
the plastic disposables
most Americans rely on
in the kitchen while still
preserving freshness?
The result was both
versatile and durable.
Handmade using only
organic cotton, beeswax,
jojoba oil and tree resin,
Bee’s Wrap was born and
features beautiful prints
and fabric certified by
the Global Organic
Textile Standard.
“Bee’s Wrap grew out
of our love of cooking and
our desire to reduce the
amount of plastic we used
in the kitchen for food
storage — as well as for
the health of our family
and the environment,”
she explains.1.
KERRY 2.
DIAMOND
Co-owner,
Smith Canteen,
Brooklyn, New YorkWHAT IT IS: Kerry Diamond is on a
mission to create one of the world’s
greenest coffee shops.
Starting January 2019, Smith Canteen
will no longer offer single-use plastic.
“The challenge is that so much of the
coffee shop mentality is grab and go,”
she explains. That disposable mindset
means piles of cups, lids and straws
heading to landfills just for us to achieve
our daily caffeine fix. “What we need to
do is turn the reusable coffee cup into
what the tote has become,” says Diamond.
While there’s no blueprint to follow,
Diamond is taking inspiration from
Instagram and forward-thinking coffee
cultures like that in Australia. “We’re
still creating best practices as we go.”
So far, Smith Canteen has switched to
paper straws, will serve only compostable
lids and cups starting in January 2019,
and currently offers a 10% discount for
customers who bring a reusable cup
(that’s roughly three times the savings
as the standard 10 cent discount many
larger chains offer). They also sellCO
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