At every link in the supply chain, improving the sustainability of the coffee trade has become an urgent task. But all too often, we focus only on the farm and the coffee shop, and forget about the roasting.   Coffee roasting can be quite efficient compared to other stages, but it still uses a lot of energy and generates large amounts of solid waste. According to one study , roasting, packaging and distribution of coffee represent about 15% of the total carbon footprint of coffee on its journey from seed to cup.   Improving the environmental sustainability of your coffee roasting operations does not have to be difficult. Let's review some practical ways for roasters to deal with energy consumption and solid waste, with information provided by coffee professionals.

Reduce Energy Consumption

  The obvious starting point for any toaster that wants to use less energy is its machine. While overloading it could lead to quality control problems, think twice before loading it too little. Make sure you reach an optimal lot size for your toaster and the sales volume of your toaster.   With luck, you are already keeping your machine in good condition and clean ; This will help it work optimally. For larger roasting operations, it is worth considering a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO). While a typical auxiliary burner incinerates pollutants in the toaster air before releasing them into the atmosphere, an RTO reuses heat from this stage in the toaster, lowering energy costs.   For smaller toasters, this type of recirculation technology is available in toasters such as Loring, while Diedrich infrared burners are famous for their cleaner exhaust pipes, compared to traditional gas burners.   Peter Mark, owner of Kuma Coffee in Seattle, tells me that he used to roast in a 12 kg machine that was heated with flame before moving on to a 35 kg Loring. He says: “Now, we use only 25% of the amount of gas we used to use, although the machine is three times larger. It is considerably more efficient. ”   After all, your business needs will determine what you can do immediately with the toaster you have. You can operate it as efficiently as possible until the time comes when you have to move to a new machine. When it's time to update, then you can turn energy efficiency into one of your requirements.

Reduce Monouse Objects

  Although you recycle the monouso products you use, they still leave a great environmental footprint. From manufacturing and transportation to recycling, all this requires energy. The best thing you can do is try to find replacements for all your monouso products. Consider the internal headphones: replace them with headbands and you will reduce your annual waste considerably.   That said, sometimes there are monouso elements that we simply cannot replace. The best we can do is limit their quantity and then recycle them. Companies like TerraCycle receive items that would be difficult to recycle in another way, such as nitrile gloves.

Reuse Jute and Cascarilla

  The two types of solid waste that roasters cannot avoid are husks and jute sacks. However, they can find a second life in agriculture.   The husk is a good addition to compost piles, since they provide fluffiness and texture, and also nitrogen. Be sure to turn it well. If you do not, it tends to form lumps on the surface when it is moistened with water, which creates a hard shell that then does not allow water to penetrate the ground in the future.   Jute bags are also ideal for farms. They are tough, versatile and perfect for transporting various things.   The real problem of eliminating the husk and jute sacks from waste streams is not so much about their lack of value, but that many roasters simply produce too many to handle the waste themselves. But the solution could be in the community. Contact farmers and gardeners in your area to find out if they are served. You may find it useful to set a specific date for public collections.

Recycle GrainPro Bags

  Another stream of waste that roasters can face are used GrainPro bags. Unfortunately, the LDPE # 4 plastic that makes them perfect for coffee storage is being accepted in less and less at municipal recycling centers.   Ron Hitztaler, operations manager at the The Green Room special coffee distribution center in Seattle, Washington, tells me: “A lot of the plants will not accept it… It must be handled and decomposed in a very special way, only by the compounds that are added. "   Even when they accept them, GrainPro president Jordan Dey tells me that "the minimum requirement for LDPE # 4 [is] significant." This has always been a problem for special coffee roasters.   However, GrainPro has recently partnered with The Green Room to find a solution. Toasters found in the US UU. They can now send their used bags from GrainPro to The Green Room, which stores the used bags until they have enough to send them to the recycling plant. Ron says: "You can [send] amounts as small as FedEx or huge amounts, in what we call Gaylord Boxes, on pallets." And he adds that large roasters can send their bags several times a week, if necessary.   Jordan says: “I simply thank you so much for your generosity in offering your storage space and staff time to help collect GrainPro bags . In addition, they are adding a logistics solution. There is the opportunity to send the bags of GrainPro or the van of The Green Room, which happens to collect them, if you are in the Greater Seattle area. ” In addition, GrainPro introduced an option to recycle with TerraCycle , which will accept 280–300 bags at a time. Alfonso Carmona, marketing director of Sustainable Harvest , tells me that Sustainable Harvest collects used bags from GrainPro from its customers and then sends them to TerraCycle to process them.   “Jute bags and GrainPro have always been a source of waste for our customers. We are excited to offer a viable solution for coffee roasters in Portland. While the climate crisis continues to accelerate, every step we take to improve the sustainability of the supply chain counts, and this will be a necessary step in the right direction. ” Many of the systems and products used by roasters are designed with ease of use in place of waste reduction. This means that toasting thinking about sustainability can sometimes seem like swimming against the current.   But, luckily, the industry is slowly realizing the need to reduce waste and emissions, and this means that more and more initiatives are being launched. Then, sign up for recycling programs like TerraCycle and The Green Room. Reduce the use of single elements as much as possible. And work with your community to find new ways to use solid waste.