Costa Coffee has partnered with biofuel company bio-bean to create a carbon-neutral alternative to burning coal and wood using coffee waste.
 
Bio-bean will turn 3,000 tonnes of coffee ground waste from over 800 UK Costa Coffee shops into ‘Coffee Logs’ that have been designed for solid fuel stoves, log burners and open fires.  Its factory, which is the first of its kind, located in Cambridgeshire, is equipped to handle up to 50,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds every year.
 
Before switching to bio-bean, Costa disposed of its waste grounds along with its food waste. Though the disposal methods that they had used, such as incinerators or anaerobic digestion plants were effective, this new method is less expensive and allow the grounds to be used again.
 
‘This partnership will put thousands of tonnes of Costa coffee grounds to work, transforming them from a waste material into sustainable, clean fuels which can heat homes this winter,’ said Oliver Rosevear, Costa Coffee Energy and Environment Manager.
 
Currently, only Costa Coffee shops owned and managed by Costa itself are working with bio-bean, but the company has started discussions to extend to the partnership to the Costa franchisee network.
 
The Founder and CEO of bio-bean, Arthur Kay hopes that this partnership will open the door to further relationships with companies and will help to minimize coffee waste.
 
‘Our technology will save Costa thousands of pounds and reduce emissions – and where Costa have led we hope other companies can follow,’ Kay said, ‘We want to work with every other UK business producing waste coffee grounds to save them money, cut carbon and prove that helping the planet doesn’t have to cost the earth.’