Nomad Café helps to Keep Oakland Beautiful through our participation in the City of Oakland's Maintain-a-Drain program. We also clean litter from our neighborhood every day, and we help to keep litter off our streets in the first place by serving our food on china and washable food ware. Take-out orders are packaged in fully biodegradable packaging - including cutlery, cups, food containers, and even straws -- made from sugar cane, potatoes, or corn starch. The packaging is completely free of petroleum-derived coatings. In order to further discourage unnecessary waste and to help offset our increased earth-friendly packaging costs, we have eliminated "bring-your-own cup or container" discounts in favor of a scale of surcharges for purchases sent home in our packaging. This has resulted in a noticeable increase in customers' use of their own cups and containers, and a commensurate reduction in the entry of take-out packaging into the waste stream from our facility. Nomad Café's in-house waste reduction program includes participation in commercial recycling and commercial composting programs, preferential ordering of products containing minimal packaging waste, and consolidation of vendors and delivery schedules. We utilize biodegradable "waste" receptacle liners, and we make our coffee grounds available to customers for use in their gardens. We are proud of Oakland's leadership in making a healthier, safer environment in which to live, and we are pleased to be participating in that effort.