New café in Sudbury says 'no' to takeout containers and disposable coffee cups

Sudbury café aims to be waste-free A new eco-friendly café in Greater Sudbury, Perk and Pine, is committed to reducing single-use waste.

A new eco-friendly café in Greater Sudbury, Perk and Pine, is committed to reducing single-use waste by encouraging customers to bring their own travel mugs and containers.

Owners Lisa Seguin and Melissa Martell said they know there are great compostable and recyclable options, but they said they just don’t need them.

"We think we could do with even less of that in the world because, I mean, it still has to go somewhere," Seguin said.

"It still has to be washed and put back into the planet. And all those recyclable plastics still break down over time and compostable has to go somewhere."

Since it's a new concept to many in the community, they have deposit jars that people can take for $3 and containers for $5. Customers get their money back when they return them.

"We think it's a great concept," Martell said.

"We want people to feel at home here. There's books, puzzles, crosswords. You can bring your laptop or your own work."

Leigha Benford, executive director of reThink Green, said the federal ban on single-use plastics has sparked some change, but for many small- to medium-sized businesses, it's a struggle on the cost side of things.

"reThink Green did run Plastic-Free Greater Sudbury for a while as a program," Benford said.

"We were making tons of gains, with a lot of businesses like this café but, the pandemic happened and everybody needed plastic, and single-use plastic kind of skyrocketed. So we are very happy as an organization and as a community to see businesses that are trying to … see what they can do to reduce their impact on the environment."

Next door to the café is the Nickel Refillery, Sudbury’s first zero-waste retail store that has been open for just more than five years.

"We've been really happy to keep a tally of the single-use plastic that we've been diverting from landfill for the last five years that we've been open," said Brady Martin.

"We've almost diverted about 650,000 pieces of plastic from Sudbury's landfill to date."

Their vision is to be recognized as Sudbury’s first environmentally conscious café. Hours of operation are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. It's located on Regent Street.

They will be hosting a special meet and greet with the Grinch from 11 a.m. to noon on Dec. 7 and will be serving green hot chocolate to celebrate.