Millions of disposable coffee cups will be saved from landfill by a scheme which turns compostable coffee cups into compost in the war on waste.

Brisbane-based Merlo Coffee Roasters has teamed with BioPak to introduce eco-friendly takeaway cups and lids throughout its stores.  The cups, lids, coffee grounds, food scraps, serviettes and straws are all composted helping the war on waste.

Three-quarters of Australians drink at least one cup of coffee a day. The result is an estimated one billion disposable coffee cups in landfill that take up to 50 years to breakdown.

How to save waste with a reusable coffee cup

There is no doubt that the best way to save waste when it comes to your daily coffee is to avoid single-use coffee containers and drink from a reusable coffee cup.  

I have a reusable coffee cup in my car and on my office desk. In winter I walk wearing a vest with a pocket that just fits my reusable coffee cup.

However, I find it is not always practical to carry a coffee cup everywhere.  In summer it is too hot to carry anything extra, but I still need my coffee, so that is when I would choose to use a compostable coffee cup.

How can you make war on waste with your daily coffee?

  1. Bring your own reusable coffee cup (you might get a discount too!)
  2. Buy your takeaway coffee at cafes that offer compostable cups and put your empty cup in the bin.
  3. Don’t choose a lid unless you need one.
  4. Ask for used coffee ground for your home garden. (Take your own container.) Coffee grounds contain nitrogen as well as some potassium and phosphorus, plus other micronutrients and can be used as a slow-release fertilizer. Just make sure your dog doesn’t eat them.

How does the compostable coffee cup system work?

I had some questions about compostable coffee cups and the war on waste, so I asked Merlo Coffee Roasters company founder Dean Merlo.  Here’s what he said about this initiative that will keep more than nine tonnes of plastic each year from going into landfill and instead, see 164 tonnes of compost created.

  • What prompted the move to compostable cups and lids?

Merlo goes through three million takeaway coffee cups and lids every year, and we wanted to find a way to reduce the impact of this on the environment. We have always had a strong commitment to reducing our carbon footprint but introducing compostable cups across all 15 stores takes our efforts to a whole new level.

It means diverting around nine tonnes of waste from landfill each year, or about 30 wheelie bins every week.

Also, many of our customers are looking at ways they can reduce their own carbon footprint these days, and they have been really supportive of the compostable cups campaign. 

We love serving up a great cup of coffee to our customers, but we want them to feel good about throwing the cup away as well.

 

  • Is it just cups and lids that are being composted?

No, we are also composting all of our coffee grounds as well as food scraps, packaging, cutlery, plates, serviettes and straws. Everything goes into the organic waste bin and turned into garden-ready compost within eight weeks.

 

  • What happens to all the compost? And those worms?

The waste is collected from our stores and taken to a recycling and revegetation farm at Swanbank where it’s made into compost. The compost is then sold, usually in bulk. It’s a great example of a circular economy in action!

 

  • You are leading the industry with this move, is this something other coffee shops and outlets can do? What steps should they be taking?

I would love to see other businesses do this. An estimated one billion takeaway coffee cups end up in landfill every year in Australia. While it’s great to see that many coffee places have introduced recyclable or compostable cups that have less plastic, these cups generally end up in landfill anyway because they are not part of a composting process.  It would be great to see more businesses explore this possibility for themselves. It is costing Merlo to do the program, and we’re not passing that on to our customers, but we think it’s worth it.

 

  • Has Merlo Coffee made other moves towards a more sustainable future?

We’ve long encouraged our customers to bring in reusable coffee cups for takeaways and tins for beans to take home – and have given them a discount for doing so. We’ve also pelletised the husks from our roasters for a variety of uses and given away tonnes of coffee grounds for use in compost.

 

  • Is sustainability important to you in your personal life as well?

It certainly is. I’m a father, as well as a businessman, and I want to see as little waste as possible from our operations – and at home. I guess it comes from my upbringing, where my family would grow a lot of what we ate, as well as share and swap,  produce with other families.

 

  • Any tips for people compost coffee at home?

Coffee grounds seem to work best when incorporated into compost and are an excellent source of nitrogen and potassium. And if they’re a larger grind – say, for a plunger – they are also great around your strawberries, as snails and slugs find them very hard to traverse!

 

  • Any tips for people compost coffee at home?

Coffee grounds seem to work best when incorporated into compost and are an excellent source of nitrogen and potassium. And if they’re a larger grind – say, for a plunger – they are also great around your strawberries, as snails and slugs find them very hard to traverse!

 

 Want to know more about sustainability?

Keeping the planet in good shape is something I am becoming increasingly passionate about. Here are some thought starters.

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