A word or 2 about our packaging ..
Packaging is important! Packaging is the biggest source of waste in the UK. Millions of tonnes a year ends up in land fill. We don't think that is right. So we have spent a lot of time trying to work out how we should package our beans and ground coffee that we send out every day. We would very much like NOT to contribute to the ever-growing pile of rubbish in our small country.
In thinking about how we should pack our orders, we could use "normal" plastic bags. We could put all sorts of creative energy into slick and funky packaging designs and you might look at it and think "oh, that's cool" and we could then pat ourselves on the back about satisfying another customer. And all could be well.
But it isn't, is it? No matter how slick and funky packaging is - its just packaging. It's going to be disposed of and if it's going to be recycled, that means YOU would have to find a recycling centre that takes plastic recycling. YOU would have to make sure it made it to the right recycling bin. And that's assuming YOUR local council has the capability to recycle different types of plastic. Most councils do NOT have that capability - and so whatever it is - it ends up in landfill or burnt. Only 50% of plastic packaging is recycled in the UK - or, in other more stark words, 6 million out of the 12 million tonnes that is thrown away.
So, instead of that we thought maybe we could use PLA packaging. PLA is polylactic acid bioplastic. Made from natural products like corn and tapioca. Gosh, we hear you say, plastic made from plants! Surely, that's a no brainer! Surely, we can leave this out in the garden and it will be compost in a few weeks! But no. Recycling PLA is difficult. It CANNOT be chucked on your home compost. PLA plastic takes 80 years (that's right - eight - zero - eighty) to decompose. That means your PLA coffee cup outlives your coffee and probably outlives you! That cannot be right either. The truth is that PLA can be recycled and turned into soil improving compost within 12 weeks - but this has to be done in a commercial composter. Unfortunately, the infrastructure in the UK has not caught up and, as yet, there are just not that many PLA recycling centres around. Around us there is one in Surrey, one near Reading .. and one down the M3 in Hampshire. Check out the map on this link - commercial composting sites in the UK. So, let's admit it. Unless we gather all our PLA cups and bags up together and drive over an hour - those PLA cups and bags will end up in landfill.
Far better - in our opinion - is to just make packaging out of simple brown paper! The packaging for roasted coffee requires a bit of strength, robustness to withstand the shipping process and it needs to be breathable. Paper does all of these things. With paper, you can put it in your recycling. With paper you CAN put it on your compost. With paper packaging even if it does end up in landfill - it will compost down leaving no trace. Paper mulches and composts down brilliantly with your grass clippings, leaves and potato peelings to create lovely compost. We know - we do it!
The only thing paper is not great for is storing ground coffee. Roasted coffee beans are OK to be kept in the original bag for a couple of weeks at least. They're good for a month or so. Ground coffee - if it is to be stored - needs a little more care and should be kept in an airtight container. We've blogged about storing coffee elsewhere.
Anyway, back to packaging. Brown paper. So, that's what we do. Our packaging is just brown paper and recyclable ink. Sure, it's not the most aesthetic of looking packaging. It won't win any "package design" awards. But we don't care. We would rather we do OUR bit for the environment, be seen to do OUR bit for the environment. And by doing so, we hope to make YOUR life easier and enable YOUR conscience to be eased to make it easy for you to do YOUR bit for the environment.
We hope you feel the same way.
