Reduce, re-use, recycle packaging and waste.

REDUCE RE-USE RECYCLE

New recycling schemes, materials and collection processes are helping the sector to make better use of its waste products.

PLASTIC WASTE REDUCTION

For some years now, there has been a steady drive for us all to consume less plastic. According to the British Coffee Association, the UK government estimates that the UK uses fi ve million tonnes of plastic each year, nearly half of which is packaging. Although household waste recycling rates have risen in the UK from around 11% in 2000/2001 to about 45% in 2018, there is a long way to go.

Businesses that signed up to the UK Plastics Pact, led by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in conjunction with the government and various NGOs, have committed to eliminate “problematic” or singleuse plastics altogether. Progress is being made. In the year 2018/2019, Pact members reduced the number of items classed as problematic by 40%. The amount of recycled plastic used to create packaging continues to increase, as does the amount of packaging that can be recycled.

The coffee sector is putting pressure on manufacturers to move to recyclable and compostable plastics, the British Coffee Association (BCA) having published a goal to push the industry to achieve zero-waste packaging by 2025.

INTRODUCING COMPOSTABLE

Recyclable plastic is one route for coffee brands to go down, though recycling takes signifi cant resources to follow through. Another is compostable plastic. This is by nature “the cleanest type of packaging available”, says Simon Roberts, commercial director of Roberts Mart, a familyowned manufacturer of compostable packaging based in Leeds that has grown to a turnover of £40 million.

“It’s from nature to nature, effectively,” says Simon Roberts. “As it is primarily derived from plant-based materials, through composting it can return to the earth in a closed-loop system.”

Currently, compostable packaging accounts for only 0.5% of consumer plastic packaging in the UK, according to WRAP. The market is growing, Simon Roberts reports, Roberts Mart having achieved four major European compostable packaging launches, one of which is with Cafés Novell. However, producing the packaging required to ensure coffee has a long enough shelflife has taken much fi nessing, say the company.

Victoria Garside, operations manager of Cafés Novell UK adds: “Our ‘No Waste’ range of compostable products, which includes both packets and capsules, offers a real alternative to the waste currently generated by aluminium coffee capsules and plastic barrier coffee packs. Cafés Novell has been pioneering the use of this packaging across Europe for some time and are now delivering it across the UK from our base in Yorkshire.”

COMPOSTABLE CHALLENGES

In general, the adoption of compostable plastics is being held back in the UK for two reasons, it is

THE CUP FUND

The Cup Fund is funding and supporting 12 projects to introduce coffee cup recycling facilities in high footfall areas across the UK, funded by the Starbucks 5p charge on singleuse cups. It came from the understanding that there is now more than enough capacity in the UK to recycle all of the coffee cups we get through each year, but there are a lack of publicfacing recycling bins that make it is easy for the public to do the right thing. From Cumbria to Bristol, cup recycling bins have been established on high streets, in offi ces, shopping centres, retail parks, train stations, service stations and universities. It includes iconic locations such as London’s South Bank, Oxford, York and Bristol.

In the Loop

Hubbub has been running In the Loop to trial new ways to improve ‘on the go’ recycling of plastic bottles, cans and cups. Less than half of local authorities offer recycling bins on the high street and even when they do the material is often of insuffi cient quality to be recycled. That’s why in 2018 they teamed up with Leeds City Council and other local partners to run Leeds By Example, a twelve month recycling on the go trial which almost tripled the number of people recycling in Leeds city centre. Since then, In the Loop has successfully been rolled out to Swansea, Edinburgh, Dublin and London Borough of Merton, with more to come in 2021. felt - a lack of consumer awareness about what to do with compostable packaging, and a lack of infrastructure across the UK for handling such packaging.

Helping consumers to know what to do with compostable packaging boils down to getting the labelling right. To be classed as compostable, the packaging must be certifi ed by TUV Austria with the OK compost label, designated to be compostable at home or industrially. This badge must be displayed clearly on all labelling.

“If a consumer doesn’t understand where a pack will compost, they will put it in landfi ll or recycling. It will either contaminate the recycling system or go into landfi ll, where it will biodegrade eventually but will release methane,” says Simon Roberts.

The second, major challenge is infrastructure. WRAP reports that 160 councils across the UK covering 11.7 million households currently do not provide food waste collections, for instance. In 2020, the government committed to rolling out food waste collection across the country by 2023 as part of its Environmental Bill, but many local authorities have said that this will create signifi cant infrastructure challenges. Until facilities are improved for composting, however, compostable packaging will not reach its potential.

Countries across Europe are much further ahead in handling both recyclable and compostable plastics. Victoria Garside points out how Cafés Novell’s Spanish parent company has rolled out widescale facilities across the country for industrial packaging, while Italy’s trade association for compostable packaging Assobioplastiche is making real headway too.

PRESSURE IS GROWING

Happily, the pressure on all elements of supply chains to reduce single-use plastics is only going to increase. In summer 2021, the plastic tax came into force in the UK - a new tax that applies to packaging that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic. Supermarkets and manufacturers will face increased pressure to fi nd alternatives that fall into four categories - reusable, recyclable, biodegradable or compostable.

The BCA is also calling for more pressure to be put on local authorities to increase the UK’s infrastructure to handle compostable plastics. Its report Bean to Bean and Beyond states: “As new packaging innovations and compostable solutions become more readily available, it is important to keep in touch with and drive innovation in other related industries such as the

waste collection and recycling sector. Waste and collection services in the UK now face an innovation challenge in being able to cope with the increasing volume and different types of compostable waste at scale.”

Consumers repeatedly demonstrate a willingness to support recyclable or compostable packaging and many make brand choices based on sustainability. The pressure is now on the UK’s local authorities to find a way to handle this waste, as there will be no turning back, it is felt.

COVERING NEW GROUND

Coffee recycling company, bio-bean Limited (www.bio-bean.com), has recently launched Inficaf - upcycled spent coffee grounds for subsequent use in sustainable product innovations.

The company can claim to be the world’s largest recycler of coffee grounds. Based in Cambridgeshire, they take spent coffee grounds from businesses large and small across the UK, such as Hot Numbers in Cambridgeshire and the national chain, Costa Coffee, upcycling them into bio-based products and giving new life to a material previously considered waste.

In turn, bio-bean’s coffee recycling model and upcycled products reduce waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to the circular economy, and the company has also recently been recognised as a Best For The Environment B Corp for 2021. Importantly, say the company, when coffee grounds are discarded to landfill they emit methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, whereas recycling grounds through them generates 80% less emissions (70% compared to AD). Collections-wise, coffee grounds headed for bio-bean are collected by waste management companies as part of day-to-day waste collections, with pricing dependant on a range of factors, including service provider and location. Typically, there is a saving to be made against the grounds going through other disposal routes, however, and they don’t charge a gate fee at their recycling site, so removing the heavy, wet coffee grounds from the waste stream can generate savings for a business. bio-bean’s latest Inficaf (https:// www.bio-bean.com/renewals/ inficaf/) is a new, sustainable raw material made from upcycled spent coffee grounds. From bioplastics to automotive friction, and from cosmetics to textiles and more, it offers versatility across a wide variety of industries to displace virgin or synthetic materials whilst also reducing waste, claim the company.

It is created from spent coffee grounds collected from UK businesses at every scale, including coffee shops, office blocks, airports and instant coffee manufacturers. Using the existing logistics infrastructure to reduce road miles, the company takes in the grounds at its recycling facility where it processes over 7,000 tonnes of spent grounds every year. When the grounds arrive, biobean processes and dries them to its requirements before sieving and packing them up for innovative, new commercial and industrial applications. Inficaf is consistent in particle size, moisture content and bulk density, point out bio-bean, its characteristics making it adaptable for businesses seeking to create transformative change.

For example, Inficaf can be a valuable, sustainable filler for plantbased polymers, replacing traditional mineral fillers. It can also be used as a filler for traditional plastics and composites, displacing the use of virgin petrochemicals. Alternatively, from an exfoliant in cosmetics and skincare products to bio-based printing inks or fibres in textiles, Inficaf offers further possibilities for sustainable product innovations. Indeed, its versatility enables product developers, designers, and manufacturers around the world to lead in their category by incorporating a truly sustainable raw material which helps to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

They have a few customers for this new product already, including a global masterbatch manufacturer and supplier called Colloids. They have partnered with them to create a sustainable and renewable coffee bio-compound for use as a composite for a variety of bio-polymers. They also have an existing customer in automotive friction. In addition, they are collaborating with a few large-scale coffee shop and fast food chains on incorporating Inficaf into their own in-restaurant products and infrastructure. It is calculated that the world currently drinks approximately 2.5 billion cups of coffee every day, report the company, creating an estimated 18 million tonnes of spent coffee grounds every year. Typically, those spent coffee grounds are sent to landfill or anaerobic digestion, neither of which make use of the residual value within this resource. However, by diverting spent coffee grounds from landfill and instead upcycling them for reuse in a circular economy, bio-bean’s Inficaf is helping to reduce waste and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention driving behaviour change and helping the world to rethink ‘waste’.

Inficaf is bio-bean’s latest innovation, the coffee recycling company having now been maximising the value of spent grounds since 2013 and with other coffee-based sustainable bio-products on the market, including a natural coffee extract for food and beverage manufacturing.

Packaging recycling and food waste

DOING THE RIGHT THING

Operators want to ‘do the right thing’ and their customers are eager to know if they also ‘do the right thing’ when they dispose of the packaging their actions will result in a positive outcome, i.e. the material will actually be recycled.

Packaging legislation over the next three to four years will see a packaging plastics tax to encourage greater recycled content, packaging recycling consistency legislation mandating all English local authorities to collect named packaging materials and food waste and a deposit return scheme for drinks containers and extended producer responsibility (EPR) meaning businesses placing more than 10 tonnes of packaging on the market will be paying for the net cost of the waste management of packaging.

This all adds up to an estimated minimum cost of £5 billion per annum to be funded by business. Although your business may use less than 10 tonnes of packaging annually, your supplier will have to pay and will have no option other than to pass the costs on to you. Not to do so will simply put them out of business. EPR is very likely to bring mandatory takeback of paper cups by all retailers irrespective of size and where purchased, and a very exciting development based on a current scheme. Cups are a valuable source of fi bres in the recycling system and mandatory retail takeback means more will be collected, litter will be reduced and those buying from the high street chains will be coming through your doors.

PACKAGING OPTIONS

It’s really tempting for coffee shop operators and take-away services to opt for packaging that meets the customer’s desire for a better environment. Some packaging is claiming to be plastic free or biodegradable, while compostables are increasingly used by independent operators. But the caterer must consider the reality of end-of-life options for these products before making an informed choice.

Compostables are excellent if you can collect and capture the used packaging and ensure that it goes to commercial composting facilities. Closed-loop environments where packaging isn’t taken out of the premises or estate works particularly well for compostables. However, if your customers are walking out of the premises and simply putting the item in the bin or the recycling bin, or worse still littering them, then composting will not happen. Composting only happens in industrial composting facilities. If compostables are put in the recycling bin they can cause contamination of the waste stream.

No packaging should be described as biodegradable as, unlike for compostables, there is no certifi cation to prove biodegradability takes place in a required timescale and the conditions for it to do so. The name implies the items can be discarded and, because they will breakdown in the environment, can encourage litter so the term biodegradable is disliked by litter charities. There are even some promoting so called biodegradables because they claim they are better in litter. This is completely irresponsible and a piece of packaging that breaks down into smaller pieces makes it easier for animal life to consume.

The FPA calls for the word biodegradable to be banned from use on packaging and we urge operators not to be tempted by the word biodegradable – in our opinion, it simply doesn’t exist and sales people pushing biodegrability over composting neglect to tell you biodegration takes place as part of the composting process.

Some packaging is described as ‘plastic free’ and again we’d advise caution as very frequently the claim is made for the materials rather than the fi nished packaging which has undergone further processing. Many so-called water-based coatings, for example, still use plastic such as acrylic as without it the coating would fail to adhere. ‘Some plastic’ does not mean ‘no plastic’, and promoting it in this way is exploiting your desire to do the right thing.

We’d advise managers of premises where packaging is removed from the premises to choose packaging for food to go and takeaway items that in all cases can be widely recycled.

Much plastic is widely recycled and almost universally collected including PET and HDPE which are recycled many times and making sure these items are collected and not sent to landfi ll is critical to creating a circular economy. The recycling waste management consistency regulations will reduce the confusion amongst the public about what can and can’t be recycled nationally. Operators will therefore know what is recycled and plan accordingly.

NEW GREENWASH GUIDELINES

When looking at options, make sure you ask questions of your supplier to ensure the claims they are making are verifi able and not simply greenwash.

Buying from an FPA member, for instance, assures you that they abide by the Code of Practice and all claims are substantiated (the Competitions and Markets Authority – CMA -is introducing new guidelines covering all environmental claims including packaging).

The CMA’s investigation revealed 40% of green claims could be misleading, especially as many products making environmental claims sell at a premium. The CMA will have powers to name and shame and take court action to compel changes in communication and enforce fi nes totalling 10% of offenders global turnover. This means any attempt to use greenwashing to promote goods could come at a high price. Businesses should be alert to the risks and the increased scrutiny such practices are likely to receive from regulators and consumers. The FPA believes that those who exploit their customers’ desire to be seen to be doing the right thing with packaging, which in all reality will make no difference, should be held to account.

There has been much debate about food packaging, especially that used for food to go and driven by lockdown and home delivery, reports Martin Kersh (pictured below), executive director of the Foodservice Packaging Association.

PACKAGING AND FOOD WASTE CONTAMINATION

Even if you get the packaging right, there is then the matter of food waste and recycling – to what extent can packaging that is covered in food residue be recycled? The answer is that it makes recycling diffi cult if the packaging carries food waste, but certainly not impossible. Householders are not all scrupulous about removing food from the packaging they place in their kerbside waste bins, but food waste collections should result in cleaner packaging.

Manufacturers are making progress in this area, developing coatings to line the inner faces of the card, such as detachable fi lm in sandwich wedges. These innovations need also to combine the requirement to be readily recyclable so the coating must not prevent this process or make it more diffi cult.

IN SUMMARY FOR OPERATORS

For operators to ensure that the maximum amount of food packaging they generate is recycled, they need to • Ensure the packaging is widely recycled. • Ensure compostables are used in closed environments and are sent to industrial composting facilities. • Not fall for ‘greenwash’ from suppliers including so called biodegrable packaging and always ask for third party evidence to prove all environmental claims are genuine. • In advance of new legislation understand what is and what is not recycled in your local area. • Play your part in in reducing food waste – the WRAP website is an excellent source of information. • Encourage your customers not to litter.