British Coffee Association’s Circular Economy Review “Bean to Bin and Beyond” Published
The
British Coffee Association has published a white paper, Bean to Bin and Beyond, which details the
progress, barriers and opportunities in embedding a fully circular economy in
the UK coffee industry. Aiming to become the first industry to achieve a fully
circular supply chain in the UK, the report sets out a clear framework to help
BCA members and the industry-at-large achieve this ambition.
Bean
to Bin and Beyond includes seven goals to pave the way for the coffee industry
to achieve key principles of circularity, in line with the Governments 25-year
environmental plan which sets out the UK’s vision to reduce waste and our
environmental impact. These BCA goals for the coffee industry are:
Zero-waste packaging by 2025 – aim to
switch to 100% recyclable or re-usable packaging across all products within the
next seven years with 0% of waste going to landfill.
Support the BCA in encouraging the UK
Government to expand investment in recycling and waste management
infrastructure, including investment in composting facilities and the
improvement of waste collection infrastructure across Local Authorities and
individual household.
Responsible
sourcing of all packaging materials – including plastic, paper, cardboard, and
aluminium through enhanced supply chain transparency, traceability and
investment in technologies that reduce waste to landfill.
UK coffee companies to conduct lifecycle
assessments (LCA’s) across their supply chains to identify opportunities to
create efficiencies, minimise waste and potential to improve circularity.
Evidenced industry commitment to creating
initiatives that help consumers understand how and where to recycle used coffee
products and materials – including education through best practice examples and
recommendations. This can be supported by improved transparency in labelling
and on-pack recycling information as well as the creation of digital technology
such as recycling apps and other tools that will help educate as well as
inspire consumers to change their behavior around the use, re-use and recycling
of materials in their daily coffee products.
Optimal transportation routes to be viewed
and reviewed by all UK coffee companies with sharing of best practice – across
supply chains both within the UK and globally, companies should look to minimize
carbon usage through transportation and drive adoption of green technology
through their transportation networks.
Encouraging the adoption of the circular
economy principles in the production and processing stages at origin – this
represents a way of supporting coffee producers’ efforts to adapt to and
mitigate the negative impacts of climate change while helping to reduce the
environmental impact of coffee farming.
Published to mark the beginning of UK
Recycling Week 2018, the white paper builds on the sustainability BCA
Sustainability Mission published by the trade organization last September and recognizes
that there are a great number of opportunities to be harnessed and an equal
number of challenges yet to be overcome in order to achieve a sustainable
circular economy. Amongst the key challenges to overcome that are identified is
closer industry collaboration and, vitally, stronger government commitment in
expanding existing recycling infrastructure available in the UK and improving
consistency in material recycling across local authorities.
The
report also highlights the progress made to date, detailing a number of key
sustainability initiatives underway across the industry including the
circularity from the capturing of waste coffee grounds to embedding green
transport infrastructure, to supporting farms in origin countries in reducing
waste and improving efficiency.
To
view the full report, please click here