A CORNISH coffee roaster has become the first to sell his product in our plastic-free Earthpouch – having been attracted by its environmental credentials.
Yallah Coffee switched to the Earthpouch after extensive shelf-life tests, as sustainability is a core part of their brand – and they wanted recyclable packaging.
Richard Black, Yallah Coffee director, said: “We were very excited to see that Sirane was producing a paper bag that was ‘heat sealable’ with a moisture barrier.
“We tested storing coffee in different barrier versions of the bags and were happy with the results of high barrier bags – the coffee stays really fresh for up to four weeks. Well worth the trade-off from other bags, considering the ease of recycling!
“These bags are 100% paper based, meaning they can be recycled with your household paper. It’s this simplicity that makes it so good; they are recyclable in 100% of homes across the country, making the best possible end of life scenario very achievable, no matter where they go.”
Yallah wanted to remove any element of doubt over how easily their packaging could be recycled by their customer, regardless of where they lived, and so rejected either bio-based materials or LDPE as a packaging solution.
Instead, they switched to our Earthpouch – a paper-based pouch with a water-based barrier, which is heat-sealable and can be supplied custom printed.
Earthpouches can be recycled with the paper stream – it’s as simple as that.
“Often, plant based plastic alternatives are worse than their predecessors in terms of emissions and their impact on the land. Plus, more often than not, they go into general waste and then landfill, making the whole thing almost entirely pointless.
“In recent years, lots of coffee roasters have started selling their produce in ‘100% recyclable bags’ made from LDPE 4. This is the same plastic that is used for single use bags from the supermarket. In our County (Cornwall), the only places you can return this type of plastic for recycling in the supermarket,” added Richard.
“We haven’t done the surveys, but I’m willing to stick my neck out and say there is a tiny percentage of people returning this type of packaging to the supermarket for recycling. It’s fairly obvious that LDPE 4 is not the answer
“Likewise, we were desperate to avoid the double packaging scenario that’s become so common; packaging coffee in 1 bag, then placing that in a box or a tube.
“We knew our friends at Cornish Seaweed were using a paper-based bag produced by Sirane (in the UK) and started to experiment with storing our coffee in their Earthpouch to see how effective the low-barrier was with keeping coffee fresh.
“The barrier was pretty much as expected, better than paper but not quite good enough. There was a noticeable difference in taste after 2 weeks storing coffee in a sealed bag, so we went back to see if they had any alternatives.
“The result is this, our new high barrier, paper based and plastic free bag. The pouches are heat sealable and will keep your coffee fresh for up to four weeks.”
Yallah are simply advising their customers to decant the coffee into an air-tight container if they wish to keep it fresh for more than four weeks.
For more information on Yallah, visit their website which is www.yallahcoffee.co.uk
Simon Balderson, Sirane MD, said: “For brands like Yallah, where sustainability is of paramount importance to them, finding the right packaging solution for their product can be a challenge, so it’s great that we were able to help.
“Earthpouch is developing all the time, we’re working on new and better barriers, and the range of products that can be packaged in this form is growing all the time.
“We also have some other exciting developments in the Earth Packaging range, including plastic-free sandwich packs, absorbent pads and more.”
In addition, we recently invested in a water-based printing press – the only one in the UK that we know of – which further boosts our eco-credentials.
Sirane has four main divisions: food packaging; medical & healthcare; horticultural and industrial. The company is based in Telford, Shropshire, with two additional sites in the UK, plus additional manufacturing in Guadalajara (Mexico), and Moscow.
