Coffee in new, slimmer and recyclable coffee bags

Coffee requires packaging. The packaging forms a small part of the climate footprint in the overall coffee production, but the new multilaminate bag introduced by the Danish coffee company BKI has a lower climate impact than other airtight packaging, reducing the climate footprint even further.

Flexible food packaging in the form of bags made of multilaminate foil is difficult to recycle. Both because they consist of several materials and because they are not recognized in automatic sorting systems. A good example is ground coffee packaging bags. A typical multilaminate coffee packaging consists of three types of plastic as well as a metallized layer, full print and laminating adhesive. If packaging waste is sorted manually, such a bag can be recognized and sorted. It simply cannot be recycled due to the completely incompatible types of plastic used. Thus, it typically ends up in a residual fraction for combustion.

Long-term focus on sustainability

Danish coffee company BKI has for many years focused on environmental responsibility. They have also for many years been the coffee producer in the Danish market, which has been and is a leader in the field of foil. As part of their CSR program, BKI supports Sustainable Development Goal 12, which is about responsible production and consumption, thus reducing the footprint from their goods. It was therefore quite natural that they three years ago started a collaboration with Danish foil supplier – POLYPRINT – to find a solution for a coffee film that can:

• be recycled
• uses less packaging
• ensures the best storage for the coffee and thus prevents food waste

Reusable coffee foil

This fall, BKI will start delivering its coffee in a new type of foil that can be recycled. BKI considers this a major step in reducing their environmental impact. But that doesn’t mean they stop here. By 2020, they expect to be able to further reduce the environmental impact on the packaging part.

The new foil has the following strengths:

• the foil reduces the climate impact (CO2 emission) by 23% compared to current coffee bags
• the foil can be recycled
• The foil does not contain aluminum metal and is therefore metal-free.
• material consumption is reduced by 15%

Source: BKI