Vancouver's Zero-Waste Coffee Chain Prevented 220,000 Disposable Cups, Now Expanding

Annette Kim's Nomad opened its second café in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighborhood this month, bringing the North Vancouver-born chain's zero-single-use-cup model into a new community for the first time since it launched in May 2022. The milestone marks a concrete test of whether a no-disposables-ever operating model can actually scale: four years and 220,000 diverted cups into the experiment, Kim is betting it can.

The operational backbone making that possible is deliberately simple but demanding. Dine-in orders arrive in ceramic mugs sourced from San Francisco startup Gaestar. Takeaway customers pay a $2 deposit on a 3D-printed clay cup and a $1 deposit on the lid, getting the full amount back when they return both. Cups go through a wash cycle and re-enter circulation immediately. Customers who arrive with their own vessels get a small reward for the effort. The return rate on the clay cups currently sits above 60%, which Kim counts as meaningful proof that a deposit system doesn't necessarily drive customers away.

That 60% figure is worth examining closely. It means roughly four in ten takeaway orders result in a cup that is kept, lost, or abandoned along with its deposit, requiring Nomad to continually replenish its clay cup inventory. For any operator evaluating a similar model, that attrition rate is the number to watch: high enough to create ongoing production and washing overhead, but apparently low enough that the economics still outperform buying disposables in volume. Unlike opt-in reusable programs at larger chains, which let customers choose the path of least resistance, Nomad removes single-use cups as an option entirely, shifting the default rather than incentivizing behavior at the margins.

The Kitsilano shop adds a Pour-Over Lounge, which Kim described as "a sanctuary for rare and experimental roasts you won't find anywhere else, inviting guests to explore the technical, experimental side of specialty coffee guided by coffee experts." Each location is also being differentiated by bean origin focus: Kitsilano will rotate international selections while the original Bewicke Avenue shop stays trained on local roasters. Nomad currently sources through Vancouver's Monogram Coffee, with oat and soy milks set as the standard options rather than premium add-ons.

The expansion doesn't stop at two locations. The City of North Vancouver confirmed Nomad as the official café operator for the incoming Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre, expected to open later in 2026. A fourth shop on Pemberton Avenue is planned for 2027 and will house Nomad Lab, an experimental kitchen and tasting bar, with a roastery slated as a longer-term addition. "The Pemberton location, which will include our roastery, is a whole new chapter for us in terms of what Nomad can be," Kim said.

The Harry Jerome contract signals something beyond retail growth. A public recreation centre serves a wider and less self-selecting customer base than a Kitsilano café, meaning the deposit system and the hard absence of disposable options will now encounter casual facility visitors and post-swim-lesson pickups, not just committed specialty regulars. That is exactly the kind of adoption stress test that distinguishes a scalable model from a neighborhood curiosity.

Kim's résumé before Nomad adds context to why the City trusted her with a flagship public facility. She opened Bean VGH at Vancouver General Hospital in 2015 and Bean-on-5th in Lower Lonsdale in 2019, where eco-initiatives reduced landfill waste by 95% over three years and earned her the Living City Award from the City of North Vancouver in 2021. Nomad is her sharpest iteration of that work. With a stated target of one million diverted cups, the Kitsilano opening is less a victory lap than the beginning of the real test.