Packaging

 

Packaging (aka the bain of our life!)

We love roasting coffee, and we also love drinking coffee ... but a byproduct of this marvellous job is the inevitable issue of packaging our product. 
A coffee bag has a few jobs it must perform in order to be useful. 
  • It must hold coffee!
  • It must shade the coffee from degrading UV light.
  • It must block out oxygen and moisture (both major foes to freshness).
  • It needs to stand out, look good, and convey useful information about itself and the company.
This is actually quite a lot for just a bag, and makes it all the more sad that it's destined for a very short life! With the rise of popular alternatives to plastic that claim to be "sustainable", we've done a deep dive into the world of packaging to find a solution that not only ticks the necessary boxes, but is by far and away the most simple to dipose of in the most responsible way to households across the UK. 

 Pilgrims Coffee Bags

Our bags are made from recycled, recyclable FSC certified paper, designed and manufactured right here in the UK by Sirane Packaging. There's no need to find a composter, or break the bags into components for different waste disposal systems - you can simply pop them straight into your regular recycling. 
Our labels are also recyclable and compostable and are made from cane fibre or kraft paper with a compostable adhesive, meaning they do not have to be removed after use. 
The bespoke illustrations on our bags are the creation of award winning digital artist Theo Scott. 

Why not plastic?

Even if recyclable, plastic is still produced using petroleum, a non-renewable fossil fuel. Plastic for coffee packaging has to be made from virgin material, as it is not currently possible to produce coffee packaging with recycled plastic. If not recycled it takes over 1,000 years for plastic packaging to completely disintegrate, and even then the microplastics continue to filter through water, soil and animals.

 

 

But what’s wrong with recyclable plastic? 

We are not confident that plastic is actually being recycled. 
Britain does not have the infrastructure to recycle its own plastic waste. Roughly two-thirds of plastic waste in the UK is sent overseas to be recycled. This waste is sold via brokers and shipped to countries such as Egypt and Malaysia. These countries do not have the facilities to deal with this waste and it is often dumped in landfill or burnt unsafely in open fires, damaging local ecosystems and emitting toxic fumes.

We do not believe in sending plastics to developing nations to be “recycled”. There’s also a definite carbon cost in shipping waste across the globe.

   

 
I hope you understand our reasonings, we are constantly searching for the best available option. And remember if you live nearby you can always pop in with your reusable container and we can fill it for you.