Coffee goes green

goes

GREEN

South African coffee house Bootlegger Coffee has partnered with food waste management specialist company Ywaste to turn its waste into compost.

ootlegger Coffee Company’s

Bcustomers can now buy gardening essentials along with their cappuccino, as the company has partnered with a food waste management specialist to turn its waste into compost.

South Africa’s municipal landfills are rapidly running out of airspace, and the solution is recycling, says Pieter Bloem, co-founder and director, Bootlegger Coffee Company.

“We want to play our part to help the country avoid reaching day zero for landfill airspace. So, now our customers can up their ecofriendly street credibility by buying bags of Bootlegger topsoil, potting soil and compost made with their used coffee grounds and organic food waste, for just R40 a bag,” Bloem says. Bootlegger has engaged the services of Ywaste, which provides an eco-friendly methodology for the management of food waste through off-site composting. Ywaste has diverted 5 600 tonnes of waste from landfill in the past 11 years.

Healthy soils are fundamental to survival, seeing as they are essential for healthy plant growth, nutrition, water filtration, and also help to regulate the climate and store carbon.

“At the same time that we are focused on improving soil quality, we are helping government with their zero waste-to-landfill goals. The benefit of using coffee grounds as a fertiliser is that it adds organic material to the soil, which improves drainage, water retention and aeration in the soil,” says Emile Fourie, owner of Ywaste.

Bootlegger has always had a communitycentric focus, using beans that are 100% sustainably sourced and roasted at its micro-roastery in Woodstock, and is proudly 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified – meaning all products and ingredients have been produced using methods that support the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental.

“We would like to encourage other restaurants to also avoid landfilling, make the switch, and make a difference in their communities, with similar sustainable and eco-friendly approaches,” Bloem says. Currently, 80% of Bootlegger franchisees are participating in the initiative, with more envisioned to come on board before year-end. Additionally, the coffee house has pledged that for every 10 bags of compost bought, Bootlegger will donate a bag of compost to a community food garden.

Environmental efforts

Passionate about environmental issues, the Bootleggers philosophy is organic, real and solid. The group has introduced extensive measures to reduce its impact on the environment. It is one of the first restaurants to be fully Ocean Pledge Certified adhering to a strict set of environmental rules regarding material use in-store and for takeaways, food options and alternatives, as well as being water-wise.

The chain’s takeaway coffee cups are locally sourced, made from paper, and are 100% biodegradable and compostable. Unlike other takeaway coffee cups that use plastic, their inside liner is made from corn starch and is thus 100% plant based.

The lids are made from recycled plastic. The company implemented a #refusethelid initiative in 2017, which caused a drastic decline in lid procurement amounts. In 2016, it launched a branded dash cup to promote and incentivise the use of reusable mugs.

The company also encourages clients to return all of the used Bootleggers pods to any of its stores, which it then has recycled. No plastic bags are offered for takeaways and no expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam (aka Styrofoam) is used in-store or for takeaways.

Only reusable tableware is used in-house, and takeaway containers are made of paper, while takeaway cutlery is made of corn starch. Additionally, only biodegradable paper straws are used in stores to reduce the impact plastic has on the environment.

Customers can buy bags of Bootlegger topsoil, potting soil and compost made with used coffee grounds and organic food waste