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Kite House Café
Working Towards a Zero-Waste World
Human industry produces a staggering amount of waste and the hospitality industry is no different... except for us.
With our Cafe in Nelson Bay we wanted to start driving a shift in hospitality culture towards a circular loop of waste where everything which is used is re-used.
We broke our waste assessment down into the following categories to address them and then further broke them down into preventative measures, which is what we do to limit the impact before it is made, and curative, which is what we do to minimise an impact we can't yet avoid.
Dry waste is non-food waste. Think packaging, milk cartons, takeaway cups.
Prevention:
Coffee Bean Packaging - We pick up all our coffee in re-useable metal tins from the roaster en-route to and from Newcastle.
Bottled Water - Our bottled water not only funds Plastic Free Port Stephens but is made of aluminium which is almost infinitely recyclable, as opposed to plastic which has a very finite amount of times it can be recycled.
Cure:
Coffee Cups/Milk Cartons/Malk Cartons - All our coffee cups are biodegradable and we have partnered with a local mushroom grower to provide them with our cups for the carbon to help their oyster mushrooms grow.
Please help reduce the amount of cups which go to landfill by dropping your cups in the bins we provide.
Our alternative milk cartons are used as planter and propagation boxes by the mushroom growers.
What remains for us to find a better solution for is our milk cartons, soft plastic sleeves our cups arrive in (we use some for lining our planter boxes), and containers for our chocolate powder, cinnamon and vanilla.)
Dry Waste
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Water
We live in the driest inhabited continent on Earth and so water conservation needs to be everyone's priority.
Prevention:
We use tank water for our initial mopping of floors to minimise the draw on town water supplies. In the future, we would be aiming at setting up a tank water system which can provide all our water.
Cure: Unfortunately, our water is something we have had not been able to dispose of in a circular way yet. We are looking for a local garden etc who would benefit from our wastewater.
If you have any ideas or connections in the Nelson Bay area let us know!
Energy/Fuel
It's not how just how little energy you use it's where you get that energy from.
Prevention:
Power - We use solar panels to power our coffee trailer.
Heating - We have orientated the coffee van to maximise cooling by the wind to minimise the need for air conditioning.
Consumables - Everything we purchase is as local as possible, while still being ethical and financially viable.
Coffee - Our beans are picked up from the roastery by us on the way back from running a father and son bonding program in Newcastle each week so there is no extra delivery mileage beyond what is necessary.
All our food supplies are picked up as part of our household food shopping.
Cure:
Tree Planting - We allocate a portion of the profit from each sale to the fund being grown by Escape Eco Adventures to buy trees/vegetation and run local revegetation initiatives to compensate for our carbon footprint.
Wet Waste
Wet waste is food waste. For us it is banana peels and coffee grinds.
Prevention:
Preparing only what we need.
Cure:
Coffee Grounds - Our coffee grounds are sent to the mushroom growers to feed their crops.
Banana Peels - Our banana peels are used for the worm farm for our home garden.
Other Food Waste - Is all eaten by our hungry staff and housemates!
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