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Circular Partnerships for the Coffee Industry

Global coffee roasters have worked to build strong partnerships throughout their supply chain in order to bring their customers specialty coffee products of high quality while maintaining ethical standards.

The ethos for quality, fair trading and sustainability is clear in many small-medium enterprises, with many opting to support smaller cooperatives across key growing regions, or sourcing from individual farms to provide full traceability.

This sentiment also needs to translate to product packaging as well.

Sustainable Product, Sustainable Packaging

Through our packaging team, Close the Loop create simple, recycle-friendly coffee bags that both provide the required product protection and help reduce packaging waste. Roasted coffee packaging is often crafted from multiple layers of different plastics and include aluminium or metalised films to provide shelf life. While great for the coffee itself, this type of packaging was not designed for sustainability and requires re-engineering to be made with end of life in mind.

Our high-barrier coffee bag alternatives are made out of a single plastic type, making it more recyclable than a typical coffee bag and aligning with the sustainable packaging guidelines set out by the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO). The material used to create the coffee bag maintains product shelf life while eliminating the need for problematic materials like PET or aluminium.

This includes recyclable degassing coffee valves placed within the bags themselves. We have a partnership in Australia with Wipf, the innovative European supplier of coffee valves to the global market.

Closing the Loop with Collection

The dedication Close the Loop to sustainability in coffee goes one step further than the adoption of more sustainable packaging- we are actively recycling these types of coffee bags.

As a leader in the circular economy space, we’re helping coffee businesses to enhance their corporate social responsibility through the implementation of packaging, programs and processes that divert materials from landfill.

Truck Drop off soft plastic for recycling

Our customers drop off their coffee packaging for recycling at our Reservoir site.

Coffee packaging can be recycled through our soft plastics recycling line into a product called rFlex®, which is a 100% recycled plastic resin used for manufacturing items such as pallets, shopping trolleys, baskets, crates, and other supply chain items.

“Coffee brands choose to work with Close the Loop because of the unique circular benefits they receive from us with the creation of better, more sustainable coffee packaging and then our ability to recycle the same packaging with zero waste to landfill.”

–  Paul Belnick, Close the Loop Flexible Packaging Account Manager

The Future of Packaging Recycling- Circular Contracts

Traditional recycling methods have not been effective due to the limited end markets for recycled materials, partly influenced by the poor design of packaging that hinders our ability to separate and recover materials of value.

Brands looking to bolster their ESG can partner with Close the Loop Group to form a Circular Contract, allowing them to reduce materials going to landfill and achieve better sustainability outcomes through the redesign, recovery, and recycling of soft plastic packaging. This is then supported by commitment to buy-back recycled content products like rFlex® for use in their own supply chain tertiary or bulk handling packaging. Circular Contracts inform a circular economy and ensure balance between materials going in and out of the system, keeping materials in circulation longer and reducing the need for virgin plastics.

To find out more about how your business can work with Close the Loop for more sustainable outcomes, please contact us at info@ofpack.com.au