Coffee Circular Economy
Have you ever considered the impact your daily cup of coffee has on our planet?
Cultivation, transportation, roasting, packaging and distribution. In each step of the coffee supply chain, waste is generated and pollution is emitted. It can either be excessive water usage during cultivation and processing of the coffee, elevated carbon dioxide emissions during transportation, or dangerous waste disposal in packaging production.
Producing coffee has a massive impact on the environment, and not only positively.
Your cup of coffee is made using the seeds — or “beans” — of the coffee cherry, which only makes up a fraction of the total mass of 10 million tons of coffee produced annually.
Gunter Pauli, one of the main sustainability researchers, estimated that global coffee production, from harvesting to brewing, creates about 23 million tons of waste per year. Meaning: the majority of the coffee product is waste!
Lowering the carbon footprint and waste production in the coffee supply chain is a duty we can’t run away from anymore. It might seem too big of a deal to handle individually, but for sure there are important steps we can take now, and start the shift together.
This is Circular Economy.
This intricate concept is nothing more that the adoption of a wider perspective in production, processing, consumption and discharging in the coffee sector, and it can help us in reducing the environmental impacts of coffee by creating new value from its by-products.
Understanding how to better exploit all the by-products, or waste streams, in the coffee supply chain is complicated, but there are many things that can be done even now! Here you have a list of four macro-areas in which improvements can be easily made.
By-products
Coffee is a plant, but we exclusively use the cherry’s seeds in brewing coffee. Commonly, what happens is that the cherry is discarded or sometimes used as fertilizer in coffee cultivation. However, the potential of this cherry is substantially bigger.
Once the beans are removed during processing, the cherry of coffee, commercially known as cascara, can be dried (as with the leaves of tea) and transformed into a delicious tea-like infusion with many interesting properties.
Using coffee cherries in this way is a perfect example of circular thinking, where coffee producers are able to get value from what, until a few years ago, was considered as a waste product.
Starting to consume this product means making sure that the production of Cascara is spread all over the world, also reducing the waste produced whilst having a great new product to consume. It also works perfectly in your summer Gin-Tonic by the way :)
Waste discharging
That sticky, black coffee sludge that comes out of your espresso machine or filter coffee set-up is definitely worth more than just the bin.
First of all, for God’s sake, don’t throw it in the sink! Combine it with food waste and turn it into an amazing compost for farms and gardens. Indeed, its nutrient content can rehabilitate polluted soil, keeps away rats and other pests, suppresses weeds and much more. (Nerdy tip: coffee is acidic, therefore 1/4 ratio coffee sludge/compost is recommended)
Gunter Pauli for years now has been looking for alternatives to solve the waste problem. In the past twenty years he has been travelling all around the globe to find solutions to this issue, launching several projects like sustainable mining, bamboo housing and unavoidably coffee.
His motto is “Drink it, Eat it, Wear it”. He came up with several ideas to transform coffee grounds in soil to cultivate mushrooms or fabric for your sport jersey. These are not just crazy ideas but real projects already implemented. Here we leave you some links to check out more on this cool topic:
- Rotterzwam
- TED Talk in Tokyo
Packaging
Speaking about reducing the environmental impact of coffee, packaging is the “sexiest” topic. Yes of course, we know that there are biodegradable packagings but they also have some drawbacks: they tend to be expensive, there are major challenges with quality control and shelf life and some of them are only biodegradable but not compostable (+ they can be very ugly).
So, what can we do if we want to make more sustainable packaging without making coffee crazy expensive or easily perishable?
At Wakuli we propose two feasible solutions:
- The first one is to use our cool coffee bags as flower pots in order to give them a second life by getting creative. Don’t forget to puncture the bag for drainage ;)
- The second piece of advice we give you is to fill the bags up with coffee grounds, get your hands on some spores and cultivate oyster mushrooms in them.
Consumption
Don’t worry, we are not going to repeat how important it is to buy responsibly and sustainably sourced coffee with transparent supply chains. Even though you should do it :)
We would therefore love to provide you with some easy tips and tricks to reduce the impact of your coffee consumption.
- Buy your own reusable coffee mug (there are some stylish ones nowadays) and bring it everywhere in order to avoid plastic or paper takeaway cups
- Avoid using plastic spoons to stir your coffee
- Look for biodegradable filters
- When choosing for additional ingredients like milk, also consider the impact these products have on the environment
- If you drink coffee from pods or capsules, make sure to buy compostable ones
Many argue that the best way to ensure sustainability in the coffee supply chain is certification, which is a fine first step. In our previous medium article we explained how it’s not the holy grail though, and the hot topics of circularity and sustainability need way more than just certification.
But how cool, we can all start and act now to make sure our daily cup of coffee is there to stay!
Get circular.
