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Florida coffee shop named first ‘zero waste' store in state

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If you think about it, coffee shops can produce a lot of garbage, from the cups, to the lids to even the bags and napkins. But a store in Pinellas County, Florida, is reversing that trend.

Black Crow Coffee Co. is the first shop in Florida that has been certified "zero waste" by environmental company Suncoast Compost, WFTS reported.

It took about seven months to make the change from tossing garbage to composting it, WTSP reported.

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The majority of the store’s garbage, 90 percent of it, is kept out of the county dump.

Owner Deana Hawk uses organic, biodegradable cups, sleeves and coffee bags. Almost everything that can be thrown away go into compost piles instead of the landfills, WFTS reported.

They also use noodles in place of straws, WTSP reported.

Customers are urged to use their own cups and to-go vessels instead of one supplied by the store.

The store also serves up an education with their lattes. One part of the shop shows how customers can do their part to help the environment.

"People come in here and they're reading, they're talking, they're singing, they're hanging out," Hawk told WFTS. "So when they see that corner of compostable stuff and it looks crazy, that starts a dialogue, and that dialogue goes into the community."