Belgium's largest coffee roaster, Beyers Koffie, has started using a state-of-the-art production line that makes all of its coffee pads compostable. The sustainability measure was a three million Euro investment.
The filter paper for the new coffee pads will be made from 100 percent natural materials such as corn and sugar. Beyers Koffie produces 1.4 billion coffee pads annually, which will now all be compostable PLA filter paper. The brand-new production line began on October 12 and has the capacity to produce 1,400 pads per minute.
“Beyers Koffie has been producing coffee in pads for 20 years, and was also the first roaster to offer them for private label. We now notice that more and more of our customers are choosing this environmentally friendly option of PLA filter paper," explained Cory Bush, CEO of Beyers Koffie.
"This will be our standard from now on, simply because we want to make sustainable coffee the norm. The investment in the new production line was therefore necessary in order to serve our customers even better in the future. It also confirms what Beyers Koffie has been doing since 1880 and emphasises our plans for the coming decades: 'Taking Coffee Further' – in other words: more and better coffee.”
Further sustainability developments from the brand include producing its own on-site green electricity, utilising energy-efficient heat recovery roasters, a water purification system, working only with 100 percent green electricity and compensating for all CO2 emissions generated.
