NEW - POSTAL FRIENDLY BAGS - Friendly for your letter box, friendly to our environment

Our New Retail Bag Range

We have rolled out our new 200g bags from today. These will replace our previous retail bag option with a new, slim design, which allows us to offer a postal ready option to our Online Store Customers. 

We collaborated with our friends over at Grounded Packaging at the beginning of 2022 to design and deliver our new range which are 100% Home Compostable and can be placed in your home food waste bin.

The 200g bag will deliver 11 x 300ml cups of coffee based on a standard 18 gram dose (1:18 Ratio)

Here is some info from our friends at Grounded:

The Good?

• Completely compostable (or biodegradable) in both home and industrial compost conditions
• Does not break down into micro-plastic particles
• The use of compostable materials in flexible packaging aids in the development of a functioning circular economic system. This is particularly important in flexible packaging as it is an area that is very challenging for mechanical recycling
• The increased use of compostable materials creates market demand that will lead to the development of important composting infrastructure
• Reduces reliance on fossil fuels and increases the use of renewable plant-based materials
• Promoting the development of a composting waste stream also helps to address the problem of the excess waste to the landfill (in the form of food scraps) which has a significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions

The Bad?

• More expensive than traditional virgin plastic materials
• A majority of compostable materials are hygroscopic, meaning they have a tendency to take on moisture. This means that they have limited shelf-life for products with high moisture or oil content
• Despite the exciting opportunity that compostable films and laminates represent to develop a productive circular economy, currently rates of composting are low
• If compostable bioplastics end up in a landfill, over time they will generate methane, a greenhouse gas far worse for the environment than carbon dioxide
• There is a lot of misinformation in relation to compostable materials and they lack universally-accepted labelling and certification standards

 How long does it take to break down?

The time it takes a product to biodegrade depends on the conditions of the composting environment. Industrial or commercial compost facilities run at higher temperatures and certification protocol requires materials to biodegrade within six months. Home composts are more variable and depend on external factors such as temperature, humidity and how often they're turned. Home compost certification requires materials to biodegrade within 12 months at a temperature of around 30°C. For more information check out our certifications page.

Environmental impact

Our oceans are drowning in plastic. 9 million tonnes of it annually.

Solving this problem requires a global effort.

Our approach is to catch the problem at the source. 80% of plastic ocean waste comes from 1000 river systems in developing countries. Grounded’s Buy One Save One program supports collection and recycling depots in the Philippines and Indonesia, #1 and #5 respectively for the generation of plastic ocean waste. For every item we sell, we save the equivalent from reaching our oceans in the areas that need it the most.

All waste collected is tracked and measured to provide our clients with audited data that calculates the direct impact of their contribution.

Reducing carbon footprint

Grounded is actively stepping up efforts to decarbonise our planet.

We design solutions that naturally have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuel alternatives but most materials and manufacturing processes still have a carbon footprint.

To measure our footprint we have built a proprietary impact calculator that gives us an unmatched ability to model and understand emissions data for different materials and supply chains. This data gives us a unique ability to quantify emissions and accurately restore balance when needed.

To tackle our carbon emissions we fund initiatives that leverage natural processes to sequester carbon as efficiently as possible.

We hope you like them! :)

Team Coaltown