Local coffee outlets to offer special deal in bid to reduce waste

Coffee chain Ground Espresso Bars has doubled-down on its ethical duties by launching a pioneering initiative - '˜Reuse at Ground' '“ which aims to encourage members of the public across Northern Ireland to change their habits and reduce waste by offering an unprecedented 50p off all hot drinks when a reusable cup is used.
Sofie Owens, Barista at Ground Espresso Bars, officially launches the company's pioneering initiative 'Reuse at Ground'.Sofie Owens, Barista at Ground Espresso Bars, officially launches the company's pioneering initiative 'Reuse at Ground'.
Sofie Owens, Barista at Ground Espresso Bars, officially launches the company's pioneering initiative 'Reuse at Ground'.

Ground, which has outlets in Lisburn and Sprucefield, is the first coffee chain in Northern Ireland to offer this level of incentive to customers and the company is also in the process of phasing out the use of plastic straws, which will be replaced with paper straws in all 24 stores by April and is also trialling new fully recyclable cups within selected stores.

The ‘Reuse at Ground’ initiative comes on the back of recent statistics highlighting that over 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away in the UK each year, with less than one per cent of these currently being recycled due to the lack of recycling facilities in the UK that can fully separate the materials found in a coffee cup.

Darren Gardiner, Co-Founder of Ground Espresso Bars, said: “We are really pleased to be launching our ‘Reuse at Ground’ initiative, which we hope will help change customer habits by encouraging more people to use a reusable cup. As a company we take our responsibility to the environment and the local community very seriously and through this initiative we want to ensure that our customers feel rewarded for playing their part in helping the environment and reducing wastage.

“Whether you order your coffee to go five times a month or are a more frequent consumer of up to 15 times a month, using a reusable cup could have a significant impact and in just one year a coffee drinker could reduce waste by around 60 to 180 cups respectively.”

This latest initiative from Ground complements the company’s responsible business initiatives in recent years which have included support of the Growing Livelihoods project with Cloughmills Community Action Team, where spent coffee grounds were used to cultivate a crop of mushrooms for use by the local community, and a unique partnership with the company’s coffee growers in Honduras which involved the construction of a new education hub for children and young people in the community.