It is no easy fix, changing how your coffee bag looks after (very nearly) 25 years. The aim from our perspective was to make a bag that felt good to hold and looked like a vessel that both our suppliers would be happy to be seen in and our customers to hold.
Having spent the last 24 months testing new material for coffee bags, we have opted for these beauties. This is the first time our (UK) supplier has made this shape of the bag with this tactile material. If read with the wrong tone, it could appear that we have been vain in our choice of packaging, this is where I add, it truly isn’t, although we are happy with how they look!
Packaging
It turns out that there is no magic bullet when preserving roasted coffee. There have been many conversations about materials used and their after-life (if you will).
At this moment in history, most biodegradable labeled bags aren’t and if they really are (wait for it) your coffee will be as sharp as soggy cardboard (in more ways than one 🥄 🥣 ☕️ ) in next to no time. We trialed a number of different bags and this material worked best. There are options of course. We are working on a lower 🦶 for locals, but this doesn’t help Rosie in Rugby or Jerry in Scotland. There is talk about taxing packaging as this will force people and companies to “do the right thing”. Possibly this is along the lines of the water companies who have been immune from liability in the UK (since privatisation)whilst announcing they are reinvesting after much political pressure, but financed by you and me, the customer. Thank you @Feargal_Sharkey for making this happen. If you are old enough to get the reference we all had a “my perfect cousin”.
Returning to packaging.
The clock Is ticking on the environment. We need some sort of big future plan for how to deal with recycling. The UK should be leading the pack. We had a genuinely interesting customer years ago, called Dr Vanstenis who was an independent toxicologist, which is a rare thing. His view on incinerators was not one you would want to read or hear before bed. But burning things means that they are out of sight, although the particles are so small they are going through all of us.
I know this current solution is not the perfect one (however lovely our new bags are 😂 ). We are always working and thinking about what is the right way forwards. Bigger and more are not on the list and haven’t been for years.
Let’s replace our natural gas with hydrogen. Let’s put pv on every roof that we can and have an afterlife for these too. We have some very clever people in our country, we just need to prioritise the future. I think this is rant-worthy stuff and I hope 🤞 it’s understandable from the outside.
PJ out (for now)
Logical bit and disposal.
Navigating the right path with packaging is a little short of a sod, these days. We don’t want to add to the worldwide problem of recycling, but we are now in it, and let’s see if we can in some small way be part of the solution.
How do we dispose of these LDPE 4 bags, I hear you ask! If your local recycling already collects supermarket carrier bags then you are in luck. Alternatively, the majority of supermarkets now have recycling collections at the entrance. To be transparent, the list of what you can take is here.
We really hope that you approve of the bags and that you are able to recycle them too.
