With sustainability at the forefront of industry demands, it is important to understand the responsibility we hold as a community, to reduce the impact of coffee waste.

We introduce Beyond Green, an information source for Roasters to discover ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. As this resource evolves, we hope to continue adding information on ways to help reduce coffee waste.

Hessian Sacks

Perfect for upcycling, hessian sacks have a multitude of uses beyond storing coffee. Initiatives such as War on Waste Cartel turn these colourful sacks into tote bags, whilst other uses include dog beds, decorations, storage bags, or gardening. Using these sacks for gardening has become a major alternate use for hessian sacks, with gardeners utilising their ability to decompose as an alternative to mulch, or to plant plants. CERES in Melbourne recommend them as ‘blankets’ for worm farms and compost, grow bags for potatoes and other vegetables, shade protection against harsh weather, sheet mulching with woodchips, decorative outdoor pieces, and many more.

Chaff

Coffee chaff is the dried skin from the coffee bean that is removed during the roasting process. Chaff is unavoidable, and due to its light nature often gets everywhere. But there are ways to use chaff for good instead of disposing of it directly into landfill. Chaff can be used to create chicken or other domestic pet beds, or more popularly can be used as compost. Local chaff collection is also available, with companies like Reground measuring roasting volumes and chaff production from partnering businesses and organising scheduled collections of chaff from provided bins.

Grain Pro and Ecotact

Two very popular partner companies in the coffee industry are GrainPro and Ecotact. Providing sustainable packaging, both companies produce high food safety and protection standards bags which protect coffee, whilst Ecotact offers a service which allows for the recycling and repurposing of their plastic material. Ecotact’s Teracycle is an initiative where companies can keep a box on site to store their used Ecotact packaging and organise collection for the bags to be recycled. Their plan for this initiative is to go global, creating a sustainable waste management recycling stream at a negligible cost, and aligns with the UN’s Envision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals. Similarly, PACT Soft Plastics Recycling is an initiative to partner with manufacturers to ensure better recycling of their soft plastics, investing in world-class sorting, washing, and processing technologies to produce locally sourced recycled products.

Certifications

Recently, there has been a stronger presence of sustainable and eco-friendly certifications in the coffee industry. From producers to roasters, foundations and conservationists are creating initiatives for coffee-related activity to be more sustainable and environmentally conscious in their productions and processes. With these certifications becoming the hallmark for ethically produced coffee, consumers and buyers have been on the lookout for these certifications. Some of the below certifications are just a few that LCM look for when establishing relationships with suppliers.

  • The Rainforest Alliance (RFA) is an initiative fighting both deforestation and climate change. Whilst pushing for responsible supply chain and production, RFA also provides assistance to certified farms and related companies on best practice. RFA has become very popular in the coffee industry, and a driving force for the prevention of deforestation in the production of coffee.

  • Fairtrade is a certification which aims to protect smaller farmers, often a part of a cooperative, who deserve access to sell their coffee at market-level prices. Fairtrade helps these farmers by offering farmers Fairtrade Minimum Price, which protects farmers from sudden price drops by providing stability, as well as offering premiums for organically produced coffee. Fairtrade also offers a premium on the coffee purchase price which is donated to local community projects of the farmer’s choice, boosting local communities and infrastructure and education programs. 

  • EcoVadis certification looks directly at transparency, setting a standard for regenerative and equitable practices. EcoVadis’ aim is to guide businesses all over the world toward a sustainable future, delivering positive impact for our planet and society. The certification helps by assessing businesses’ current practices and providing targeted improvement suggestions to reduce impact on the environment.