Brewing Up Sustainable Coffee Practices

Your first-grade science teacher probably taught you the phrase “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” But did you know the three Rs are listed in order of impact?

Café Domestique roasts their coffee on an all-electric Bellwether roaster and packages the beans in Roastar tin cans. These sturdy cans aren’t just recyclable—they’re refillable. Customers purchase a can once, then bring it back for discounted refills.

That single change has made a measurable difference: fewer bags in the waste stream, lower costs for the Café, and a customer base that keeps coming back for more beans.

How Does the Sustainable Coffee Program Work?

1. Buy once. Customers purchase fresh beans in a reusable tin can.

2. Bring it back. Next visit, they return the empty can.

3. Refill + save. They get a $2 discount, with the option to try any coffee—house espresso, a seasonal roast, or even a guest roaster’s beans.

And it’s not just cans—Café Domestique extends this ethos to shipping beans from their roastery to Cafés. Bulk deliveries are shipped in five- and ten-pound reusable buckets, washed, sanitized, and sent back for weekly refills.

For Café Domestique, sustainability isn’t just good practice—it’s good branding. By centering their packaging and operations around reuse and refill, they’ve built an identity customers remember and talk about.

Take their custom tin cans. Customers love them not only because they reduce waste, but because they feel like something worth keeping. A can of coffee makes a thoughtful gift, a countertop conversation starter, and a refillable staple that’s connected to a customer’s daily ritual.

Café Domestique’s sweet spot of cycling culture and sustainability has built a brand that gets Madisonians buzzing.

Sometimes the simplest question makes the biggest difference. At Café Domestique, baristas don’t assume customers want a disposable cup—they ask. And when given the option, more than half of customers choose to use their own to-go cup.

That one small shift means more coffee served in reusable vessels and fewer single-use cups ending up in the trash.

Sometimes the simplest question makes the biggest difference. At Café Domestique, baristas don’t just assume customers want a disposable cup. They ask. And more than half of customers choose to use their own to-go cup when given the option.

That one small shift means more coffee is being served in reusable vessels, and fewer single-use cups end up in the trash.

Even with compostable or recyclable options, there’s no guarantee a paper cup and plastic lid will end up in the right bin once it leaves the Café (most don’t). By involving customers in sustainability decisions, Café Domestique has dramatically reduced its waste stream while lowering costs on disposables.

It’s proof that sustainability doesn’t always mean massive overhauls. Sometimes, it’s about asking the right question at the right time.

Café Domestique also encourages sustainable habits through a clever punch card program. The catch? Customers only earn punches toward a free drink if they use a reusable cup—whether it’s their own travel mug, a for-here ceramic, or a Huskee exchange cup.

It’s a small nudge that gets people rethinking their daily routine while making the reward feel even more meaningful.

Café Domestique is looking abroad to coffee shops in other parts of the world that impose a supplemental cost—or even a complete ban—on disposable products. But for now, they’re taking it one step at a time and engaging their loyalists at every turn.

And that’s the point: progress doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. From asking a simple “did you bring your own cup” to building a community around refillable cans, coffee shops like Café Domestique are showing what’s possible when you take sustainability seriously without having to sacrifice the customer experience.

At Roastar, we’ve always believed that packaging should work harder—not just for brands, but for the planet too. Tin cans paired with easy-to-apply peel & stick closures are a game-changer for three key reasons:

Reusable = less single-use waste.

Durable = customers keep them longer.

Flexible = perfect for gifts or refill programs.

Café Domestique proves that when the right Café uses the right packaging, sustainability and business success roll side by side.

Ready to launch your own refill program? Start a project with Roastar today.