Why Did a Luckin Coffee Store Dump Waste Ice on Street Trees?

A Luckin Coffee store drew criticism after employees dumped large amounts of waste ice from ice machine cleaning under street trees in front of the shop, forming a small pile that covered the soil around the roots. The landscaping department weighed in on whether the practice helps or harms the trees, and the episode highlights a waste ice disposal blind spot at chain coffee stores.

Ice machines must be emptied before each cleaning so the next batch of ice stays fresh and hygienic. Staff say piling the scooped ice in a store sink melts slowly and blocks limited washing space, while flushing it with running water wastes time and water. Some employees pour the ice into storm drains, and others into tree pits, believing the meltwater will nourish the trees.

Recently, a video of Luckin Coffee store employees dumping large amounts of waste ice from cleaning the ice machine under the street trees in front of the store sparked heated discussion on social media. On one hand, there is the practical difficulty employees face in disposing of excess ice; on the other, netizens are concerned about the health of the trees. Is dumping ice a way of putting waste to good use, or is it harming the greenery? The landscaping department has offered professional opinions on this, and the incident also reflects a management blind spot in the waste ice disposal process at chain coffee stores.

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Recently, a short video circulating on social media showed a large amount of ice piled up under the street trees directly opposite a Luckin Coffee store, forming a small "iceberg." The soil around the tree roots was almost completely covered by ice, and some ice had spilled over the edge of the tree pit. Anyone witnessing this scene would inevitably feel a chill for that street tree.

In fact, Luckin has strict requirements for store hygiene management, one of which is regularly cleaning the ice machine. According to employees, each time the ice machine is cleaned, all the existing ice inside the machine must first be scooped out before the subsequent cleaning steps can be carried out. This is done to ensure that the ice produced after the ice machine resumes operation is sufficiently fresh and hygienic.

The problem is that how to dispose of this scooped-out waste ice has become a headache for employees. If it is piled directly in the store sink, the ice melts slowly and occupies the limited washing space for a long time. If they want to speed up melting, they have to keep flushing it with running water. In the employees' view, this method is both time-consuming and water-wasting, with extremely low efficiency.

As a result, some Luckin employees choose to dump the waste ice into roadside storm drains, letting it melt naturally and flow away with the water. Other employees dump the ice into the tree pits of street trees, thinking that the melted ice water can just nourish the trees, making it a kind of "waste utilization."

However, in the eyes of netizens, dumping large amounts of ice under street trees will damage the trees and constitutes an act of destroying urban greenery. Although the ice used by Luckin is made from drinking water and the water quality itself is clean, piling such a large amount of ice suddenly at the tree roots could, for tree species that are not cold-tolerant, very likely freeze and damage the root system, causing irreversible harm.

However, many people hold a different view, believing that roadside street trees are not that fragile. They point out that trees chosen as street trees are all high-quality species that have been screened, with strong adaptability and tolerance, and are more "hardy" than ordinary flowers and plants. Moreover, judging from the clothing of the store employees in the video and the light intensity at the time, the local temperature should not be low, and perhaps the ice would completely melt under sunlight within a few hours, so it may not necessarily have a substantial impact on the street trees.

Just as netizens were arguing endlessly over how Luckin employees handled the waste ice, some media consulted staff at the landscaping bureau about the matter. According to the staff, because the physical and chemical properties of the soil on both sides of the road are relatively poor, most street trees are indeed, as some netizens said, more resistant than ordinary trees and can withstand a certain degree of rough treatment, but this does not mean that street trees can be harmed at will.

The staff suggested that large amounts of ice should not be randomly dumped into the tree pits of street trees. Even if it is to be dumped, businesses should not concentrate it closely against the tree roots. Doing so will interfere with the trees' normal transpiration and is not conducive to their healthy growth. If the tree species itself is not flood-tolerant, the water from a large amount of melted ice seeping into the soil may also cause water accumulation at the roots, having a relatively large negative impact on the street trees.

Therefore, for the sake of the street trees' health, Luckin should probably give less ice.

Video and images from: Xiaohongshu

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