The Cafe

From Coffee Grounds to Much More

Over two years ago, La Vita Dolce began composting. We started by donating coffee grounds to the Mary Scroggs Elementary School garden. After several months, we started working with Orange County Waste Management to educate ourselves and develop a more structured and comprehensive program. We established a compost pick up station for La Vita Dolce, and started composting all food waste and some other materials, which were picked up twice per week.

Then, a little over a year ago, we got more serious about our commitment to composting by changing our supply chain. We switched almost all all of our single use containers to compostable options (eg. hot cups and lids, cold cups and lids, straws, stirrers, coffee carriers, and more). We shared about this step in our post from February 2019. The main driver for the change was that, as a business, we have a commitment to operate in a way that adds value for all stakeholders, the environment included. So we started doing more for this silent stakeholder.

For over a year now, La Vita Dolce has been composting almost all of our waste. Our pickup station, which started with one large bin, now has four to six large bins, and we’ve educated ourselves to make sure our program doesn’t just make us feel good, but is actually effective. We learned that certain materials, like corrugated cardboard, should still be recycled rather than composted, while all food waste and food packaging like cups that have food/drink residue on them should be composted.

Annual Impact

Orange County Waste Management and Brooks Contractors (who contracted with Orange County to pick up our compost waste twice per week) have been amazing partners. They’ve even helped us track our impact.

Over the past year, as shown in the infographic above:

• La Vita Dolce contributed over 26,395 pounds of waste to Orange County’s composting program. That’s more than 500 lbs each week!
• We saved, directly or indirectly, approximately $1,333 in waste hauling and disposal costs.
• The amount of waste La Vita Dolce composted saved approximately 12 tons in greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s even more amazing is the bigger picture: the impact across Orange County as more businesses and individuals compost.

Over the past year, the Orange County Waste Management’s Composting program diverted 1,025 tons (2.05 million pounds) of compostable waste from landfills, contributing to production of 25,000 tons of Class A compost. Overall, the program saved about 900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing 2,300 cars from the road for a year.

Education, Awareness, and Ease

In addition to using compostable materials and having a compost bin in front and back of house, we also need to make sure we educate our community and customers about optimal disposal and make it easy for them to compost when possible.

We’ve done things such as test different signage to see what is most effective in getting customers to choose the compost bin when appropriate, without having to think too much about it. We’ve tried to unobtrusively educate customers about what they should compost vs. recycle (all of our cups, lids, straws, and food scraps should be composted). When we switched to compostable cold cups, lids, and straws, we told every customer that who got a drink in these cups that the whole thing was compostable when they were done. We’ve also tried to use cups that are not only compostable, but that clearly state this status on the cup so customers can check and see.

Our crew’s commitment

La Vita Dolce’s employees deserve a lot of the credit for the positive changes we’ve made. They’ve been huge supporters of our composting and waste elimination efforts, not only in customer-facing ways, but behind the scenes as well. They’ve eliminated their use of plastic grocery bags when purchasing for the café, and continually suggest ways the business can do better. They push me to do more and we probably wouldn’t have taken the steps we have if not for their encouragement.

I’m proud of our efforts so far, but I also know there’s more we can do. We hope to have a greater positive impact in the coming year — and I know our staff will keep encouraging progress.

Continuing effort and education

The education I’ve received as owner of La Vita Dolce, and the continual encouragement of my staff, has also changed my behavior as an individual. Since businesses produce so much more waste than individuals, I knew it was critical for us as a business to do better. But our efforts at work have made it abundantly clear that I, as an individual outside of work, can make dozens of decisions that are better for the environment every day, too.

I’ve learned to always pause before throwing anything in the trash and check labels (which unfortunately aren’t always straightforward). I’ve learned a lot about what is compostable and what isn’t, and which materials are better to compost vs. recycle when you can do either.

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s all about setting myself up to make make environmentally positive decisions with ease throughout the day. The easier it is for me to make good decisions, the more often I make them, and the more I strengthen new, better habits.

But it needs to be so easy. Like, absurdly easy. No matter what I tell myself I will do, the fact is that in the moment I’m often rushed, forgetful, or just freaking lazy. So I have to set myself up to still make the right decisions with as little effort as possible in the moment.

Simple things — such as putting my reusable bags back in my car immediately after unloading groceries (rather than having to get them from my house when I’m frantically leaving for the store), having an easily accessible compost bin in any area where I might need it, setting up a system for getting rid of compost that requires minimal ongoing effort, and finding the right reusable food storage containers (ones that are dishwasher friendly, durable, and airtight) so I’ll actually use them — have made the biggest difference in closing the gap between my intentions and my behavior. I’ve even gotten in the habit of making less than a recipe’s standard yield when I cook because I’m usually only cooking for two, and no matter how excited I am about what I’m making, I’m going to be a baby about eating the leftovers two nights in a row.

Moving forward

I’m sharing this post largely to make sure we continue to hold La Vita Dolce accountable. I hope that sharing about our efforts and commitment keeps them front of mind for us; and that reflecting on the impact our changes have had positively reinforces continued progress. I also hope that sharing how we went from not composting at all to setting up systems that work easily for us, we encourage others to do the same.

I am very much a “cost-benefit analyzer” in that I analyze the resources and time required of my business to make a change and compare that cost to the value the potential change will bring. After a year of tracking the costs and benefits of our composting program, despite slightly higher container costs, it’s clear to me that the changes we’ve made have had a net positive result. They have brought value to not only the environment, but to staff and customers. They’ve even had a significant enough impact on me that they’ve changed my behavior as a consumer.