Zero Waste Initiative

We hope to reduce our waste that goes to landfills to zero. Actions we have so far taken to achieve this include :

1) Composting all chaff and coffee grounds from our roasting facility

2) Becoming as paper-less as possible. This includes all our internal reporting, billing, and providing only digital receipts.

3) Using only LED or CFL bulbs in all our facilities

4) Shredding and composting paper we do use at our roasting facility and offices

5) Recycling all cardboard used at our roasting facility and offices

6) Using sturdy, cleanable containers for our wholesale coffee and tea so they may be reused

7) Composting all coffee grounds from all our coffee and tea bars, or providing the grounds to local growers to compost. (bring in 5 gallon pails with your name and phone number on them for us to fill up if interested)

8) Composting all other compostables from our coffee and tea bars and roasting facility

9) Using ceramic cups for done-in guests at all our coffee & tea bars, offering a discount for guests using our tumblers or to-go cups, and using recyclable polystyrene.

10) Providing foodstuffs past their best by or expiration as chicken / animal feed

11) Recycling all recyclables at our Canton Coffee & Tea bar.

12) Recycling all milk jugs from all stores

13) Providing reusable stirrers for guests

14) Partnering with local company to collect and bio-degrade our polystyrene cups

 

Certification Coffees

"Fair-trade" is certainly nice sounding brand name for a certification.  While many of the ideas behind Fair Trade / Bird Friendly / Shade Grown / etc. certifications are good, many of the fees, policies, and politics make the systems counter-productive to a sustainable ethical improvement. For example, to be Fair Trade Certified, a coffee farm must pay the certifying agency several significant fees. Many poor farms cannot afford these fees, thus the poor farms cannot be labeled with the fair trade stamp. While some of our coffees happen to have fair-trade certification, we don’t label it as such because it gives an unfair marketing advantage to the farms that can afford the certification over the farms that cannot. We have been able to work directly with coffee farmers and processors to use arrangements were coffee from a specific farm is keep separate and we are able pay the farmer (usually who cannot afford a certification) substantially more for her/his coffee because of the transparency and quality. Fairer then "Fair-Trade".

Donations

Muggswigz strives to be a great local business citizen. We recognize there are many causes worthy of support, but by focusing our resources in a few areas we feel our impact is greater. Since 2003, we have geared the majority of Muggswigz giving toward local elementary and high school education, specifically in the natural sciences.

Previous donation recipients include:

    Canton Ballet
    Akron Children's Hospital
    Portage Montessori School
    Canton City School District
    Canton Country Day School
    Canton Mckinley Alumni Association
    Warstler Elementary
    Junior Achievement
    Canton Symphony
    St. Joan of Arc Elementary
    Walsh University
    Pro Football HOF
    Canton South's Scholarship Fund
    Jackson School for the Arts
    Saints Philip and James School
    The Invention Project - National Inventors Hall of Fame
    The National Parents Organization
    Alex's Lemonade Stand
    En-rich-ment
    Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank
   

Green Polystyrene

   Muggswigz has replaced its paper cups with recyclable polystyrene cups, composts the papery chaff waste from its roasting operation, and the spent coffee grounds from its coffee and tea bars. 

   People have tended to think that because paper cups come from trees they are a better choice for the environment. However, they involve cutting down trees to make cups. Many cups are made with recycled content, but not 100% , so trees are being cut down to make the cups. Additionally, the energy required to manufacture a standard insulated wax-coated paperboard cup is almost three times as much energy as required to manufacture a polystyrene cup. Standard paper cups used with corrugated cardboard sleeves require about two times the energy to produce as polystyrene cups. Fossil-fuel use is further reduced by using polystyrene cups simply because they are 90% air, and thus much lighter then paper cups, greatly reducing transportation fuel consumption. ANd polystyrene eliminates the need for cups sleeves, whose manufacture involves cutting down more trees and burning more fossil fuels. 

   Since paper is not inherently waterproof, and people don't want to run the risk of serious burns if they don't finish their cup of coffee in under a minute, paper cups are coated with polyethylene, unfortunately making them unsuitable for recycling.

   Its important to make well-informed decisions concerning our environmental impact, and we seek to consistently improve.

   Check out this website for more information - https://viofoam.com/index.php/vio-products/foam-facts   ;  https://www.hefty.com/facts-foam