Reduce, Re-use and Up-cycle

We’ve taken a measuring stick to waste — recycling, composting and repurposing wherever possible. In 2009, we recorded these achievements:

• diverted 239 yards of recycled material from landfills
• sequestered 36 tonnes of carbon emissions
• composted our chaff and other waste at Smith-rite’s composting facility in Squamish
• diverted nearly 4,000 burlap bags from landfill through donation to charity

Recyclable Packaging

Our coffee packaging has long been our most challenging environmental concern. We’ve worked extensively to develop either a compostable or recyclable solution, though bag manufacturing innovation lags behind need.

Earlier this year, while this research continued, we reviewed our local options to divert bags from landfills. We launched a new recycling program that would turn coffee bags into energy at the Waste to Energy Facility (WTEF) in South Burnaby. However, after further consideration and a lively online discussion with both local environmental leaders and our customers, we decided that incineration of empty coffee bags is not our best solution. Instead, Ethical Bean will store the empty coffee bags at our roasting facility until a more environmentally friendly solution is found. The full debate can be viewed online at Scout.

You are invited to bring your empty coffee bags, even those of our competitors, to the Vancouver’s Ethical Bean Xpress drop-boxes located at:

• the Granville Skytrain station
• the Commercial Skytrain station
• the Ethical Bean Café at 1315 Kootenay Street in East Vancouver.

On the Sunshine Coast, drop boxes can be found in:

• the Wilson Creek IGA.

Bring in 5 bags or more at a time receive a cup of fresh drip coffee. Additionally, all who write their name and email address on the side of their bags before returning them will be entered each week into a draw for a free pound of coffee. Anyone across Canada can be entered in the weekly draws too! Simply mail empty coffee bags, along with their name and email address to: