Our Pilot Recycling Program

Recycling-1

For the past few months, we’ve been running a pilot program working towards recycling the bags we sell our wholesale coffee in. Recycling the type of bags we use (triple-ply, foil-lined) is relatively new, and we plan to grow this scheme as far as we can.

Packaging coffee is somewhat frustrating. For us, the priority is retaining freshness and quality, and then you have to make everything else line up after that. For a long time, this meant that the packaging used for great coffee didn’t fit well with recyclability.

Our wholesale customers will remember our short-lived shift to biodegradable bags. These didn’t last long because once in use the maths simply didn’t add up. If you looked at the bags from a cradle to grave perspective (rather than just in contrast to a triple-ply, foil-lined bag) then they turned out to be a step in the wrong direction. Biodegradable bags often split (which meant replacing the bag and the coffee in it, which is waste, compounded by further shipping), they were put into recycling bins by mistake (and thus that batch of recycling was contaminated), and so we actually felt like we were taking a step backwards with them. As a result, we returned to traditional, foil-lined packaging, but we didn’t stop looking for a better way.

As of today, we’re only able to extend our recycling program to wholesale customers to whom we deliver in our own delivery van. We’ve been delivering in reusable crates for a little while now, and we simply ask customers to put all the empty coffee bags back into one of the empty crates we’ll be collecting the next time we deliver.

We want this to succeed so this service is free of charge to our customers, and we’ll also take bags they have from any other roaster (as long as they are made of the same kind of material) – we’ve got bags from over 20 different roasting companies ready to be processed in the next batch! We cover the cost of the recycling here, and it is only really viable because we’re able to collect enough material.

Recycling isn’t perfect. We’re always on the lookout for materials that are more sustainable and that we can genuinely recycle (rather than downcycle, as is usually the case). Quality will remain the priority, but we hope this inspires others to follow our lead. It would be great to prevent tonnes of packaging per year ending up in landfill.

 

James Hoffmann

: James is the co-founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters. Working in coffee since 2003, James was the World Barista Champion in 2007 after having won the UK Barista Competition in both 2006 and 2007. James has a YouTube channel where he makes videos about anything and everything to do with coffee, and has published “The World Atlas of Coffee” (2014) as well as “How To Make The Best Coffee At Home” (2022).

James Hoffmann

: James is the co-founder of Square Mile Coffee Roasters. Working in coffee since 2003, James was the World Barista Champion in 2007 after having won the UK Barista Competition in both 2006 and 2007. James has a YouTube channel where he makes videos about anything and everything to do with coffee, and has published “The World Atlas of Coffee” (2014) as well as “How To Make The Best Coffee At Home” (2022).