By Mike Rieder

Hey, Manager Mike here.

Calling the pandemic a rollercoaster of emotions might be an understatement. It has brought on new challenges and new circumstances for us all. Local businesses have struggled and the ones that have survived so far are the ones that have been able to adjust. We are fortunate at the Freedom Café to still be kicking thanks to the support of our community. One minor pandemic forced change that has turned into an entire personal odyssey for me is that the Café can only serve drinks in to-go cups. 

The Café has always put an effort to promote sustainability. Almost everything disposable we serve is compostable: cups, lids, straws, napkins, paper towels and obviously food/drinks. The incredible company, Mr. Fox Composting, picks up our 8 gallon bin and brings it to their commercial composting plant. 

I care about the environment. I really do! I have to. David Attenborough told me bad things will happen to the earth if I don’t. My partner and I compost at home (another shoutout to Mr. Fox Composting!), we recycle diligently and try not to partake in ‘wishful recycling’. We have even gone as far as buying bars of soap without wrapping to waste less material. Still, I’m human, and after a long day at the Café I’ve gone home, finished a jar of peanut butter, looked at the days of struggle and soaking that it would take to get all of the peanut butter out of the jar to recycle, and thrown it in the trash. Even more human, I feel the guilt of my actions and feel like I’m not doing enough to help the environment. 

The Café has helped me redeem myself though because like I said before, we have an 8 gallon bin for compost, but if I had to guess, we probably have about 30 gallons of compost to fit in that bin each week. For the past 6 months, with a worldwide pandemic that forced us to wear mask in public to prevent any airborne saliva, I’ve found myself forearm deep taking off lids to every cup used in the past week just to stack each cup into each other to create more space in the compost bin. 

I have a specific system:

1. Take big trash bin with compost and Mr. Fox 8 gallon bin outside.

2. De-lid each cup, toss out remnants of previous drink, and stack the cups. (This usually fills about 4 gallons of the 8 gallon bin)Shove the big bag with all the lids and miscellaneous objects (a.k.a. rogue cups from the Juicery or other compostable paraphernalia)

3. Take the 13 gallon bag filled with paper towels from the bathroom, poke holes in it to easily release air, then mash it in the bin. (It looks full at this point, but more can fit, don’t you worry!)

4. Take the 3 gallon bag that sits next the sink for tea leaves and used pour over grounds/filters and again mash.

5. Finally, for good measure, go into the bathroom and take a handful of used paper towels to top the bin off.

Needless to say, I think earned my environmental consciousness badge for the past 6 months, but my time compost bin diving is coming to an end. With our move to Main st. coming in the near future, we have upgraded to a commercial size bin that holds a whopping 32 gallons! I will need to find a new way to make my imprint on erasing my carbon footprint. 

Any suggestions?

Manager Mike

#composting
#freedomindurham
#beaconsciousconsumer
#environmentallyfriendly
#changeonecupatatime
#handson
#movin’onup
#cafelife
#davidattenborough