GREEN BEANS LEADING THE WAY

The coffee industry has received a lot of negative press over the waste it creates. More than 100 million non-recyclable coffee packs are produced a year.

Coffee can’t be sold in paper bags because it has to be protected from oxygen and moisture, but one company, Percol, is stealing a march on the competition with its compostable pack.

Ollie Richmond, a product development manager at Percol, says: ‘We looked into recyclable options initially, but we decided we didn’t want to produce a product that added to the problem.

‘So we were very pleased to find a product which is compostable in a home food bin.’ The packaging is produced by UK company Parkside Flexibles.

Ollie says the main challenge is cost: ‘each pack is five times more expensive than plastic. Customers are not always willing to pay more for sustainable options so we’ve had to absorb that cost.’