Tag: sustainability

coffee, industry news

Targeting Coffee Waste One Reusable Cup (And App) At A Time

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Reusable cups are one of the biggest challenges facing sustainability in the coffee industry. It’s simply too convenient to grab a ‘paper’ cup, chug your latte, and go.

The Perfect Daily Grind interviewed a few brands that are actively targeting paper cup waste by providing reusable cups, as well as targeting the myth of paper cup recyclability. These brands don’t just end their campaign at that, but actively target pain points that keep customers from bringing their cups back. HuskeeSwap is one brand that provides a useful app and e-credits if customers drop off reusable cups at a variety of designated locations, saving them a trip.

(Justifiable concerns about spreading COVID are also tampered by this brand’s consistent sanitation measures).

As I type this, landfills continue to rise and bodies of water continue to be polluted by poor coffee consumption habits. Truth be told, I haven’t been to a café in a few years. Working remotely has made it easier than ever to brew coffee at home and socially distance. Nonetheless, these initiatives should become standard as soon as possible.

coffee, industry news

Ireland Is Reducing Coffee Cup Waste One Fee At A Time. Is It Helping?

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The coffee industry produces tons of waste. It’s mind-bending at times. From used coffee grounds to piles of accessories, daily coffee usage is hysterically unsustainable.

Ireland is going the extra mile to impose a fee on disposable cups to encourage businesses to start implementing greener alternatives. The bill comes into effect soon and aims to shrink landfills, reduce carbon emissions, and target illegal dumping. This country sees an average of 200 million coffee cups being landfilled or incinerated every year. That number isn’t even touching on accessories like sleeves, lids, straws, bags, or wrappers.

I ran this bill over my head a few times and actually think it could be a little more strict. A big problem with eco-friendly initiatives is the pervasive myth they’re ‘optional’. A similar news story dropped a few years ago on cafes phasing out reusable cups to much success, though it took a while to catch on because of the small fee. Some customers still bought the paper cups because they didn’t care about the higher price and prioritized their convenience over long-term change.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The Irish law’s fees will add up mightily over time, but we’re past the point of incremental alternatives. We simply don’t have the time needed for slow-yet-steady change. Not with climate change deadlines on our doorstep.

What do you think about this new law? Do you think it’s too harsh or not harsh enough?

beer

Did You Know You Can Recycle Beer Waste Into Flour, Animal Feed, And Pizza?

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This is the kind of ingenuity that restores my faith in humanity. With so much bad news on the climate change front, this is one green development you won’t want to overlook.

ReGrained is a new food business looking to completely transform the way we look at making beer. They take the spent grain leftover from the brewing process and turn it into a slew of sustainable (and delicious) products. Flour, animal feed, and pre-made products like pasta are just a few of the creations that have come out. If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of this before, don’t worry. Recycling beer waste is brand new technology that the creator himself stated should have caught on sooner.

This approach is not just novelty, either. The spent beer grain is stuffed full of essential proteins and fiber, with the article wrapping up with a taste test of ReGrained‘s pizza dough. Apparently it tastes similar to buckwheat, but with a quintessentially fermented tang. Sweet!

An interesting detail I want to point out is how the creator stresses the need for ongoing ingenuity. While he wants his technology to be more accessible, he also wants brewers to think up more unique ways to recycle materials and reduce harmful waste.

Looks like there’s hope for the planet and the art of nuance.

coffee cherry
coffee

A New Coffee Certification Is In Town

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Keeping track of coffee certifications isn’t easy. The brew already has a thousand and one details swirling around every purchase, from origin to bean variety to altitude.

The complex web of certifications have already come under fire a few times lately, such as the USDA admitting they might have to completely rehaul their organic certification due to a lack of compliance and oversight. That isn’t to say these labels are completely untrustworthy. Rather, it’s our duty as customers to be extra diligent about what we buy. Just because something says it’s sustainable doesn’t mean it actually is. As such, this detailed article on a new coffee certification had me feeling a glimmer of hope.

Not only is the Jaguar Friendly program a mutually beneficial partnership between farmer and animal, they go into great detail in how the certification actually works.

Coffee farms under this certification have to dedicate certain areas of land to the jaguar’s territory, including planting trees in certain locations and focusing on shade-grown coffee to reduce the need for expensive methods of cultivation. The goal is to reduce dangerous encounters and the worst-case scenario of killing an already threatened species.

Consider looking for this label on your next bag of coffee beans. What goes around comes around, as the saying goes, and this is a very forward-thinking initiative, indeed.

coffee, industry news

The Classic Coffee Cup Gets A Clever Makeover

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The coffee cup is an iconic staple of day-to-day life. It’s also loaded with unsustainable bells and whistles that create a lot of waste every year.

Just how much waste? According to a study by The Guardian, the UK alone tosses over 2.5 billion paper coffee cups every year. Even worse, a mere one out of every four hundred cups is actually recycled. That means towering landfills, worsening air quality, and, of course, the omnipresent threat of irreversible climate change. Being presented with yearly figures like these makes sustainability conversations feel like a useless loop. It’s all a lot of positive fluff with little to actually show for it.

This redesign to the classic coffee cup has a few thoughts on the matter. Fast Company shared an interview with the creators of this Kickstarter-backed coffee cup, hearkening to Chinese takeout and origami in its lid-free and sleeve-free design. It’s easy to fold and unfold, without fear of spilling, and cuts into the dismal statistics left by wasteful coffee culture.

One of my favorite details are the lovely animal-focused prints by Alexis Kandra, chosen specifically to keep buyers mindful of the very environment they’re supporting. Now that’s mindful packaging design.

coffee

Carbon-free Roasting Is A Trend That Should Stick

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It’s amazing how much damage an everyday product can create. We’re so saturated with coffee it’s very easy to overlook.

‘Going green’ sounds great on paper, but requires a dedicated overhaul of old, inefficient ways of running business. Getting just one detail wrong could cause yet another ripple effect to make up for in the future. Coffee is a titan of an industry, with the United States alone drinking an estimated 400 million cups per day. Roasting coffee beans, in particular, is a delicate process that can make or break the final cup. Not only do you have to get the right profile, you have to leave the right carbon footprint.

What fascinated me in Forbes’ recent analysis/review was this new way of reducing carbon emissions while still crafting a high-quality roast. The Bellwether Roaster reuses the same air without using gas, drastically reducing its harmful output through a new approach. Even better, this machine also comes with an app that allows customers to choose their own roasting curve. If you thought a soy decaf latte was specific, imagine being able to select a medium-dark roast on top of it all.

Today’s harmful climate change is accelerated primarily through ongoing business activity, not individuals or even communities. If the figures in this analysis are accurate, this roasting technology should become the new default.

industry news, tea

More Than A Rainy Day: The Threat To Global Tea Production

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Tea is a delicate creation. It relies on a medley of strict agricultural standards, prime ecological conditions and timely collection to get that flavor and aroma you love. Anything that falls out of those complex parameters results in lackluster tea or crops that refuse to grow. Climate change remains one of the biggest threats to the tea industry, just like the coffee industry, and the coronavirus definitely hasn’t helped. People are working harder and longer for awful results…and it’s only getting worse.

What will the tea industry even look like in the next decade?

The Economic Times takes a look at the whopping 20% loss of tea crops in the Assam and Bengal tea belt. Excessive rainfall and not enough sun is to blame for much of this, leading to fears of missing vital economic minimums that keep businesses running and people employed. The thing with climate change? It’s not just a rainy day. It’s a precedent for similar weather patterns down the road. More loss. More difficulties. More more, snowballing faster than we can keep track.

It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of dramatic weather patterns and big business. I know I do. Giving up isn’t an answer, though. Not when this planet is our only home and there’s an entire generation that might just grow up where the tea industry isn’t a thing.

coffee, industry news, tea

Everyone Has A Role To Play With Sustainability Labels

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Sustainability has become a pretty convoluted word. It sounds nice on paper — and looks pretty snazzy — but the moment you start to scratch the surface, you run into trouble.

Which sustainability labels are actually inciting meaningful change for farmers? How are these certifications approved and maintained, much less reinforced by outside parties? Do consumers actually have any power when it comes to encouraging fair trade? These are just a few of the questions that The Week takes a look at: their illuminating piece goes into the nitty-gritty behind sustainability certification and what it actually means for farmers, traders and consumers.

Government initiatives versus non-profits. The issue of premium demand and production. The flaws in the reporting system and which standards are used to measure in the first place. There’s some good, insightful commentary here to pierce the labyrinthine tangle of fact and fiction. While the sustainability conversation won’t be ended with just one article — indeed, the oversaturation of certification labels is the problem — this article will give you a better idea as to what you’re looking at while shopping.

Just yesterday I was looking for coffee to stock up my shelf and wondering whether or not I should buy K-cups, thanks to recent recycling issues. I’m also planning on making the switch to a French Press for home coffee so I can focus on purchasing specialty, small-batch coffee. It’s not much…

…but change has to start somewhere.

cute mug of coffee
coffee, industry news, tea

A Dash Of Different: Five Fun Twists On Coffee And Tea

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One of the genius details about coffee and tea is just how flexible they are. You can really come up with almost anything. …Almost. I really don’t want to read the news one of these days and find out liquid gold is now being called the ‘new espresso’.

I keep an eye on stories like these because I want innovation to be just as fun as it is necessary. Stories on climate change and the impact it leaves on entire livelihoods is an essential conversation, yes, but it’s also a little draining. Making the world a better place to live means embracing it all. Change as complex as coming up with new farming methods…as well as thinking about how to chill coffee quicker. Change as vital as planting millions of trees in one day, as well as a faster, cuter way of recycling.

Let’s take a look at some recent developments in coffee and tea, from low-calorie alcoholic tea varieties to caffeinated popsicles.

Continue reading “A Dash Of Different: Five Fun Twists On Coffee And Tea” →
roasted coffee beans
coffee, industry news

A cup of coffee made without a single bean.

Ashe

Sound like something you’d want to try? I took a look at this interesting scientific development earlier on LinkedIn, but I have a few more thoughts on the matter.

Beanless coffee is a (kind of) modern development currently being polished by today’s best scientists. This technique is similar to chicory — a method that involves brewing roots instead of beans — but whittles down the ingredients even further. Everything from the flavor to the way the brew sits on your tongue is meant to replicate traditional coffee near-flawlessly. On one hand, it’s fascinating how science can break down what we consume to its barest components. On the other hand, environmental concerns are cited as a major reason to continue this research.

Beanless coffee could help…as long as the industry’s priorities are kept straight.

Continue reading “A cup of coffee made without a single bean.” →