Coffee as fuel plan grinds to early halt
An innovative program using coffee grounds for fuel has come to a bitter end.
When Lafarge Canada announced it was “mothballing” its Kamloops plant in October, 36 people lost their jobs and the program using K-Cup coffee packs from Keurig ground to a halt.
Lafarge Canada and Van Houtte Coffee Services had a deal to use leftover Keurig coffee packs collected in the Kamloops area to help provide energy for the plant.
According to Lafarge Canada’s Jennifer Lewis, the cement plant in Kamloops was shut last month due to market conditions.
“We are mothballing it,” she said of the plant.
“The market conditions are such it doesn’t make sense to run the plant at this moment.”
But despite economic conditions, she said they may reopen the plant once the business picture improves.
And the program in which Van Houtte recycled the coffee packs to be used at the Lafarge plant is to be moved to another business, said Lewis.
“We are working with the supplier,” she said of the environmentally friendly program where they would use about 70,000 pounds of coffee grounds annually. “Van Houtte is looking to see where they can move the program.”
The market conditions are such it doesn’t make sense to run the plant at this moment.