PLAYING OUR PART IN THE WAR ON WASTE
Australia creates around 67 million tonnes of waste each year. It’s an astronomical figure, hard to fathom, and has driven a lot of community concern around the effects that waste is having on our planet.
Prior to 2020, a percentage of Australia’s waste was exported, including plastic, paper, glass and tyres. But, as of July 1st Australia has implemented a Waste Response Strategy, partially in response to growing concern and off the back of China’s change in policy around restrictions on importing recyclable materials.
Although the official date for the new legislation being passed is postponed due to COVID-19, The Council Of Australian Governments has created several steps in their new Strategy. The phases range from education, investing in new infrastructure, minimising single use products and packaging, simplifying the labeling etc. all helpful and important in the way we choose to handle waste here in Aus.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
It’s important to know that reducing, reusing and recycling are still three great ways you can eliminate waste & protect our environment.
Reduce
This means aiming to use less in order to avoid waste OR alternatively using natural resources instead.
Reuse
You can reuse products and packaging in its original state or pass on to someone else who may be able to.
Recycle
Be sure to recycle when you can, but do so correctly. Following the recycling info on packaging & keeping in line with your council’s guidelines.
It’s also fairly important to research companies that you’re purchasing from as a consumer. Check how and where they operate, do they use environmentally friendly packaging, are they offsetting their emissions? Every time we purchase something, we are making a decision about our future.
What are we doing?
We are Carbon Neutral
Importing coffee from around the world, roasting & distributing it around the country requires a considerable amount of energy and can result in significant carbon emissions. We offset every one of these emissions by purchasing carbon credits from renewable energy programs across the globe. Certification of our program is provided by The Carbon Reduction Institute. It is based on assessing each one of our purchases, our processes, our distribution, our travel and even how we get to work. This guarantees that each one of our products is 100% carbon neutral.
We run on Solar Power – when the sun is out!
We have reduced approximately 60% of our electricity grid usage by installing a 60kW solar panel system to our roasting facility. During the summer months we expect to cover as much as 80%.
We made the switch from capsules to pods
Prior to the release of Shots by Genovese 2.0, we stocked capsules. Although ESE pods have been around for a while, they are less common here in Australia in comparison to Capsules. We feel making the switch was important for the environment and our dedication to being sustainable.
Each pod is encased in a food grade filter paper which is 100% compostable & biodegradable.
The used pods can be placed directly into your home compost, further reducing the impact of the environmental footprint. The outer tin is made from a fully recyclable aluminium which can be added to your everyday recycling. We've found that some companies wrap each pod, but we have nitro flushed our tins for added freshness without the extra waste.
Thus far, we have saved thousands of capsules from going into landfill, and we feel pretty good about that.
EASY SERVE ESPRESSO PODS
We are a nation of coffee addicts & all about convenience. Being able to make a coffee at home that's quick and easy is the goal for many. Cue, capsule & pod machines. The term capsule can often be confused with pod, but we are here to deep dive into the differences and clear the air so we can all make better choices when it comes to our morning coffee.
WHAT ARE CAPSULES?
Coffee capsules are small containers filled with ground coffee, around 5-7 grams per capsule. Usually made from aluminium or plastic.
When capsule machines first came on the market, it seemed like a fantastic solution for quick and tasty coffee at home. Not only are the machines easy to use, they are compact and attractive. The demand for capsules grew and with it came variety. A world of capsules emerged, with companies releasing various flavours to fit the standard capsule machine that we'd all come to know.
Although many have started to catch onto the waste that these capsules are proving to produce, none of the solutions have been a complete fix. We've all seen the compostable capsules being released, although these still have plastic or aluminium lids which can be problematic as it is near impossible for sorting facilities to recycle such small elements.
Capsule machines usually pierce the top of the lid on the capsule and this allows water to flow through the puncture points and through the coffee grounds. Because paper is not as strong as aluminium or plastic, it’s harder to accurately puncture and therefore, water doesn’t flow as easily. This is generally why the lids remain aluminium or plastic on compostable pods.
Compostable does not always mean you can throw it in your home compost either. A lot of the time it actually means taking it to a commercial composting facility, and unfortunately not a lot of consumers are aware of this. Reusable capsules were created but ultimately these can end up eliminating the convenience we are all searching for as they tend to be tedious to refill.
THE DAMAGE
It is estimated around 4 million coffee capsules go into landfill every day here in Australia.
Facilities have come forward to confirm there is no infrastructure nor technology to be able to handle them. The screens to filter materials are too large and items such as coffee pods are able to pass straight through. Therefore, they end up in landfill.
SO, WHAT CAN WE DO?
The first step in reclaiming our morning rituals in an environmentally friendly way is to stop buying plastic capsules! There is no question that these are problematic for the environment.
ESE PODS
ESE pods actually date way back to the 1970’s, when they were first created in Italy. They are arguably the best alternative - coffee grounds are packed into a filter paper, similar to a tea bag. ESE Machines use an Aluminium heat exchanger with excellent thermal stability for coffee extraction. ESE dosage in almost all cases is 7 grams of coffee per pod, which makes for a perfect shot of espresso. One of the fundamental steps in making an espresso is compressing the ground coffee. A notable difference between capsules and pods, is that ESE pods are pre-compressed making a very similar extraction to a traditional espresso.
Another bonus is that no grounds of coffee are wasted as the ESE pods are prepacked.
We really like no mess and given the paper filter sits directly in the machine and not the ground coffee, it makes cleaning a breeze.
THE VERDICT
We can’t think of any reasons not to love ESE pods.
The real beauty of ESE pods is that they truly are compostable, even at home. Simply throw the used pod in your compost or worm farm and watch it degrade!