Seattle’s First Zero Waste Cafe?

As part of our commitment to the community and to the environment, we are on a mission to become Seattle’s VERY FIRST Zero Waste Cafe!

To call ourselves “Zero Waste” we have to make sure that at least 90% of our waste doesn’t end up in the landfill. Over the last six months we have switched to all-compostable products, educated customers, created new signage, made waste-sorting easier, and trained employees on new practices. With all of this, we were pretty sure we met the marks, we just needed to measure it.

After a a few final touches to our back room and some climbing around putting markers in the trash carts outside, our first week of results are in. We shattered the thresholds set by national and international Zero Waste organizations! This week, just 1.99% of our waste ended up in the landfill. The other 98.01% was diverted for reuse, donation, composting or recycling.

One week isn’t enough info for us to make claim we are Zero Waste quite yet, but we are getting unbelievably close. You can follow our progress here, and by the end of the year, you’ll be getting your coffee from Seattle’s first ever Zero Waste cafe!

Transparency is everything when it comes to environmental efforts. Visit our Zero Wastewebpage to learn more about the kinds of waste we are producing, where its going, and what we are doing to continue to improve! Continue following this blog to learn more step-by-step details about how we’ve made this transition!

A huge part of Seven’s vision is to influence change in the small businesses around us. If you work at or operate another cafe in Seattle, we highly encourage you to follow our blog, or visit the interactive Zero Waste webpage.