The plastic pollution crisis meets the underlying criteria necessary to classify the issue as a threat to global security, yet it lacks a legally binding global treaty.

The potential long-term detrimental health effects of plastic pollution remain contentious while environmental implications are wide-ranging and globally devastating. Investigatory research demonstrates genuine cause for concern and evolving consequences when evaluating the effects of mismanaged plastic waste. When defining matters of global security using a plastic pollution lens, traditional definitions of security are widened to include matters of environment, health, and civil rights. These matters are increasingly being considered politically important and, as matters of security, as they take the center stage of many political agendas globally.

Defining security and plastic pollution

When defining matters of global security, research demonstrates that specific criteria must be met, which include:

• Threat to preservation of international peace
• Transboundary threat
• Political action has been taken
• The issue has “real-world” consequences
• Drastically threatens or degrades the quality of life of state inhabitants over a brief time span

These underlying criteria are found in other significant environmental crises that are well established as threats to global security such as global climate change, biodiversity and species loss, invasive species, ozone depletion, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These recognized threats have extensive binding global treaties which catalyze global action to minimize or eliminate their effect. What is alarming, however, with the issue of plastic pollution is that, although it meets all the same criteria, the world has not yet developed a globally binding treaty to curb the devastating effects and serious risk of this ubiquitous pollution. To make matters worse, plastic pollution contributes to many of the existing recognized ecological threats to global security, worsening their cumulative effects such as atmospheric carbon.

Finding solutions among the disparity

There are no proven formulas which provide one solution to ending the plastic pollution crisis. Solutions must be localized, diverse, accessible, and as equally complex as the issue of plastic pollution itself. Over the last decade, Ocean Legacy has been creating a plastic pollution emergency response program called EPIC, a strategic platform which integrates Education, Policy, Infrastructure, and Cleanup. This program was designed to educate a global population around the effects of plastic pollution, to build advocacy tools, and identify policy gaps that build effective practices which manage plastic wastes, to give plastic waste an economic value and stimulate the plastic circular economy with infrastructure development, to provide training to facilitate cleanups, and to develop immersive learning tools to steward the natural environment.

The future of plastic is circular. Circularity is a founding ideology that I believe will become the accepted norm which sustains the very basis of humanity’s survival. Circularity is where humanity learns to harmonize its behaviour with nature and provides the opportunity to reevaluate and redesign our current state of affairs. To move forward into a life-supporting reality, establishing the following will be critical:

• We need a coordinated globally binding treaty to catalyze world-wide action and to harmonize patch work policy
• We must teach our children the importance of building a meaningful relationship with the natural planet and educate the general population on the threat of plastic pollution
• The need for more long-term research on the human health effects of plastic pollution is urgent
• Mandating recycled content standards in manufacturing and redesigning products with their full life cycle in mind must become common practice
• Capital investment to build new systems which foster behaviour change and develop infrastructure are paramount

The post Plastic Pollution is a Threat to Global Security appeared first on HiveInnovates.

What sparked your passion for a zero-waste lifestyle?

⁠It might be surprising but I didn’t start going zero waste because I loved the planet: I suffered from a major hormonal imbalance in college which led to a lot of pain, doctor visits, full-blown cystic acne, mood swings and mental health issues. So, I started reducing my exposure to endocrine disruptors which are found in a lot of products we come into daily contact with. One of my favourite books on this topic is Estrogeneration which explores the link between synthetic estrogen with our bodies and nature.

It all clicked for me when I moved to California, that the changes I was making to my personal health weren’t only better for me, they were also better for the planet.

I started my blog goingzerowaste.com because I wanted people to know they could save money, be healthier, and be more ecofriendly. It seemed like a no-brainer, and I wanted to help people make this transition easy and fun.

What does zero waste or eco-friendly living mean to you?

To me, it’s just about wasting less and being a good steward of what I have.

Buy fewer items. Use that last drop of shampoo. Upcycle your glass salsa jar to store leftovers. Reuse that promotional cotton tote until the straps fall off and then stitch them back on. Invest in products that will last a lifetime. Focus on timeless things that bring you joy rather than trends. Shop second hand. Eat fewer animal products, more plants, and remember, it’s not about being perfect.

We need to hold corporations and legislators accountable to ensure safe access to clean air, clean drinking water, and a safe environment for everyone.

What are your top tips for getting started?

1. I recommend that everyone start with the big four.
2. Say no to straws. If you need straws or like them, try and opt for a reusable one. My personal favourite is glass.
3. Ditch the plastic water bottles. Did you know tap water is more regulated than bottled water? If you don’t like the taste of you
4. Ditch plastic water bottles. Did you know tap water is more regulated than bottled water? If you don’t like the taste of your water, invest in a filter, you will save so much money in the long run. I prefer an insulated water bottle that keeps hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold.
5. Bring your own bags to the store. If you tend to forget, get a couple that fold up real small and attach to your key ring so they’ll always be with you.
6. Avoid coffee cups which are actually lined with plastic and unrecyclable in most places. The lids aren’t recyclable either. If you have your handy-dandy insulated water bottle on you, you can grab your coffee, or ask for it in a real
   mug to stay.

The post Kathryn Kellogg’s Advice on “Going Zero Waste” appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Nivera Wallani

President & General Manager, KFC Canada

Armando Carrillo

Food Innovation Manager, KFC Canada

KFC’s commitment to sustainable packaging is setting an example for the industry and helping to protect our planet.

Protecting the planet is one of KFC’s core values, and over the last several years the company has made great strides in lessening its environmental footprint. A big part of this initiative has been the restaurant’s commitment to evolving its food packaging. Today, you won’t find a plastic straw in sight at a KFC restaurant, and the company has launched some truly innovative new products, like bamboo buckets and fibre based cutlery along with other sustainability-minded initiatives, including their recent commitment to move to 100 percent home compostable packaging by 2025.

A long history based on unique values

KFC’s leadership in making its food packaging more environmentally-friendly and sustainable has a big impact, especially as it’s one of the largest global restaurant chains.

Founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952 down in Kentucky, KFC is now the world’s most popular chain of chicken restaurants. Today, KFC has more than 25,000 restaurants across 145 countries and territories around the world, including more than 600 locations right here in Canada. 

To this day, the Colonel’s proprietary blend of 11 herbs and spices is still used to season KFC’s world-famous chicken, and it remains a closely-guarded secret. Colonel Sanders, the visionary behind Kentucky Fried Chicken, is still an important part of KFC’s brand and values. Throughout everything the Colonel did, he espoused his own unique brand of values, famously saying, “A man’s life is written by the way he lives it.” Here in Canada, the team at KFC has been writing its own unique chapter in the KFC story — and embodying the Colonel’s integrity and spirit of hard work remains at the core.

Protecting the planet is one of KFC’s core values and over the last several years the company has made great strides in lessening its environmental footprint.

Sustainability that’s grounded in a sense of responsibility

Reducing plastic packaging and waste is essential for conserving resources and energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing pollution. KFC understands this imperative and is at the forefront of sustainable packaging and practices in the fast food industry.

KFC has been leading the industry in sustainable packaging since 2019, when it removed all plastic straws and bags from its restaurants, eliminating 50 million plastic straws and 10 million plastic bags across the country and replacing them with fibre-based alternatives. KFC also now sources 100 percent of its fibre-based packaging from recycled sources.

“We’re on a continuous journey to lessen our environmental footprint and believe that, as one of the largest global restaurant brands, we can make a tremendous impact not only in our local communities but our global footprint as well,” says Nivera Wallani, President and General Manager of KFC Canada.

A commitment to reusable, recyclable, and compostable packaging

The KFC bucket is an iconic part of the brand’s heritage, and evolving it into a bamboo version was a major step forward in achieving their goal to eliminate non-recoverable or non-reusable plastic-based packaging by 2025. Bamboo is fast-growing, anti-bacterial, and 100 percent biodegradable — the perfect solution. KFC has removed 12 million plastic poutine containers from its operations by transitioning to bamboo.

“We want KFC’s packaging to be forward-thinking and inspiring, and to champion functionality, food safety, and eco-friendly solutions,” says Armando Carrillo, Innovation Manager at KFC Canada. “We’ve continued to accelerate our efforts and push the boundaries to bring more environmentally-sustainable packaging solutions to market, including our move to bamboo poutine buckets.”

Inspiring change and constantly innovating

KFC has also been testing fibre-based cutlery. In November 2020, select restaurants began testing a new fibre-based spork made from bamboo, corn, and sugarcane. The new cutlery naturally decomposes at room temperature and requires no additional treatment, nor does it leave any toxic by-products. The process of decomposition takes approximately 18 months. Once fully introduced into the KFC restaurant system, the compostable cutlery will eliminate 40 million pieces of plastic cutlery annually.

KFC also recently announced that by 2025, all consumer-facing packaging will be fully home compostable, and the first home compostable bucket will begin piloting this year. KFC’s new eco-friendly sandwich bag, currently rolling out across all restaurants nationally, is an excellent new addition to the company’s home compostable initiatives. It’s made with 100 percent sustainably-sourced paper and coated with a plant-based, certified home compostable, marine-degradable coating. This bold commitment will divert nearly 200 million pieces of packaging from Canadian landfills each year.

“We hope it encourages our peers in the industry to follow suit,” says Wallani. “One of our leading principles at KFC Canada is feeding people, not landfills. The move to 100 percent home compostable consumer packaging is a bold and ambitious step we’re taking to inspire positive change in the communities we operate in.”

Giving back with the Harvest program

Alongside its packaging, KFC also takes food waste extremely seriously and donates its surplus chicken to charities within its local communities through its Harvest program. The team at KFC was inspired to create its prepared food donation program when it learned that there’s enough wasted food in the world to feed two billion people, as estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

KFC works with suppliers to purchase only as much fresh food as it expects to sell to customers based on its projections, and any surplus food is donated to food banks, soup kitchens, and other non-profits across Canada through Harvest. The restaurant donates an average of 85,000 pounds of food annually. Since 2016, KFC restaurants have donated over 260,000 pounds of food to 241 unique charities across the country.

“KFC Canada is committed to fighting food waste through our Harvest program while helping nourish those in need of high-quality protein — one of the most in-demand foods at relief shelters and food banks across the country,” says Wallani. “Colonel Sanders famously said, ‘I’m proud that I’ve helped bring good chicken to the tables of millions of people.’ Through Harvest, we’re building on that achievement beyond our restaurants while also ensuring it doesn’t end up in landfills.”

Fostering a sustainability culture

There’s no doubt that KFC is a major player in sustainability. The company’s strong voice and stance on sustainability demonstrates to its team members and franchisees that it has a stake in the game and that it cares. The KFC team lives and breathes a heart-led culture, giving its teams the permissibility to live these values every day.

KFC also works hard to ensure that its in-store initiatives make living this approach easy. For example, it’s on a mission to digitize all back-of-house operations, meaning no more paper and waste, and doing everything electronically (which also helps with supply chain management), allowing its team members to focus on delivering the best possible customer experience. KFC has also removed all financial barriers for its franchisees by paying the up-front costs for their restaurants to onboard onto the Harvest program.

KFC is working hard to inspire its industry peers and make a tremendous impact. And it’s working.

The post KFC’s Bold Sustainability Strides Are Setting an Industry Example appeared first on HiveInnovates.

You know that funky smell coming from your green bin? That’s the primary ingredient of biogas. If you capture enough of it, and purify it, it becomes a powerful and reliable source of renewable energy.

Wherever you live in Canada, there’s a good chance that climate-friendly biogas is working for you at this very moment: it’s helping to charge your phone, to power your fridge, to heat your home, or to fuel your transit system. And if it isn’t yet, it will be soon.

That’s because biogas is one of Canada’s fastest-growing renewable energy sources. It’s clean, it’s reliable, it’s cost-effective, and it comes from something we have a lot of in Canada: organic waste.

Canada’s 6 million tonnes of food waste, 16 million tonnes of farm manure, 1,500 active landfills, and sludge from 1,200 wastewater treatment plants are all readily-available sources of biogas energy.

Canada’s biogas producers capture the waste methane emitted by these organic wastes, before it gets released into the atmosphere as climate pollution, and instead get value out of it by turning it into a clean source of electricity and renewable natural gas (RNG).

Biogas is Canada’s quiet achiever

There are currently more than 270 biogas projects operating across Canada, producing reliable and clean energy for communities, farms, homes, and businesses. How much exactly? In 2020, the sector produced the equivalent of roughly 400 million square metres of solar panels, or more than 13 large hydro dams.

These projects are being led by farmers, who are converting one million tonnes of manure and agricultural waste into biogas; by industries, which can tap into wastewater sludge; and by municipalities. For instance, the City of Surrey is capturing the biogas from its Green Bin program and converting it into the fuel being used for its waste collection fleet. And in 2021, the City of Hamilton unveiled Ontario’s first “carbon-negative” bus, which is fuelled completely by RNG made with biogas from a nearby biogas facility.

There’s opportunity for much more

The good news is that there’s opportunity for much more made-in-Canada biogas. Research shows that Canada could efficiently tap at least eight times more energy from biogas and RNG, with untapped resources in every part of the country. Having the right market signals and policies in place can shape a bright future in which biogas supports greenhouse gas emission reductions, organic waste diversion, and clean energy production in a profound way.

The Canadian Biogas Association (CBA) is dedicated to growing the biogas industry to its fullest potential and maximizing the benefits from biogas. Jennifer Green, Executive Director of the CBA, shares, “Biogas is a shovel-ready solution that can deliver reliable and clean energy while reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and driving economic development in both urban and rural areas. Biogas is a full-package solution for Canada’s climate targets, and there’s opportunity for much more of it.”

Visit the CBA’s dedicated microsite bettergas.ca for an introduction to biogas, project profiles, and FAQs, and to view the Canadian 2020 Biogas Market Report published by the CBA, which offers a snapshot of Canada’s biogas sector and the factors influencing its growth.

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We spoke with Tara McKenna, founder of The Zero Waste Collective, on how to live a life with less waste and more joy.

What are some tips you have that can help Canadian consumers at home improve their personal waste reduction habits?

Many people might feel overwhelmed by the zero-waste movement because it seems that to participate people must minimize their trash to fit into a mason jar. Not so!

That’s not realistic for most households given how our current system of consumption and waste management is set up, which is very much a linear model of:

extract > produce > consume > throw away

Instead, here are a few tips that can help Canadian consumers at home improve their personal waste reduction habits:

• Get to know your local waste management system and sort properly
• Be sure to compost (either through the municipal compost system if available or at home)
• Have broken items repaired when possible
• Shop secondhand (these products are already made, and you’ll mostly avoid packaging unless the item is being shipped)
• Buy less but better; choose products that you know you won’t have to replace for a very long time
• Participate in the sharing economy: borrow, lend, rent, swap, share, trade, etc.!

What are some everyday tasks and activities that you have found that generate a substantial amount of waste that some people might not think twice about?

What’s a surprising way we’re creating waste in our everyday routines? Getting dressed each morning! Okay, so putting your clothes on in the morning in and of itself is not creating waste, but constantly shopping for new clothing is!

The world consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing each year, which is 400% more than we did just 2 decades ago! This information is from the documentary, The True Cost, which I highly recommend watching.

In Canada, the average person throws out 81 pounds of textiles annually (source: Recycling Council of Ontario). Yikes! Who knew our wardrobes could be so wasteful?

What can we do to change the tide on our textile waste?

• Shop your wardrobe and enjoy the clothes you already own
• Develop your own personal style and avoid chasing trends that change quickly
• Hold a clothing swap with friends and family to freshen up your style
• When shopping: buy secondhand when possible, and shop for less but better-quality pieces that will live in your closet for years to come!

What sort of adjustments can people make to adopt a low-waste lifestyle that has a bigger impact than we may think?

While many people automatically think about reusable straws and shopping in the bulk section with your jars is what the zero-waste lifestyle is all about, and certainly those are great options. Another great way to reduce your waste is to reduce your consumption overall – this can have a huge impact!  

That can be hard to do, so one adjustment Canadians can make would be to save for our wants (like extra clothes, décor, furniture, eating out) instead of throwing these purchases on our credit cards.

Average Canadian non-mortgage debt sits around $23k (source: CBC News). What better way to reduce our debts than to shop less and skip the waste that comes with shopping (manufacturing process, transportation, packaging, and disposal). When you save up for what you want to purchase, your credit cards will thank you and so will the planet!

What would you say to the people who do not believe their personal actions truly matter in the grand scheme of things when it comes to consumption and personal waste?

“It’s only one straw” – said 7 billion people. Sure, it might seem like the choices of a single person won’t impact the rest of the planet in any meaningful way. However, that individualistic thinking leaves us forgetting that we’re part of a bigger collective.

We live in communities and we’re part of a bigger population that lives on this planet! The world’s population consumes 1 million plastic bottles every minute (source), and Canadians alone consume more than 2 billion plastic bottles per year (source).

If we as people, as communities, as part of a greater collective, chose to skip these single-use bottles, imagine the impact that would have? Especially when much of this plastic waste ends up in our natural environment (consider that 22 million pounds of plastics enter the Great Lakes each year – source).

Our collective consumption matters. While one single bottle or one single straw in the moment doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is once you start to add them all up.

A strong reminder of our plastics problem is littered all around us, literally. One way to remind ourselves that we’re part of this planet is to do trash clean-ups! This year I’m participating in and partnering with GLAD’s litter clean up campaign, GLAD for Change. I’ll be tracking my impact using the One Piece a Day App!

Everyone can make a difference by consuming fewer single-use plastics and helping keep our natural environment litterless.

The post Q&A with Tara McKenna appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Novamont’s specialty is compostable packaging materials through the MATER-BI family of products. Fully compostable produce bags and waste collection bags made with MATER-BI can be used to divert food waste such as fruit cores, vegetable peelings, and proteins from landfill and incineration. MATER-BI compostable bags also make the task of collecting food waste from homes and kitchens easier and cleaner.

Rather than food waste languishing in a landfill and producing methane gas — a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide — what was once considered waste can now be transformed into compost, a valuable commodity that nourishes the soil, captures carbon and retains water for plant growth while improving the productivity of Canada’s agricultural lands plus the health of plants in many home gardens.

Novamont also promotes the role of bioplastics in helping to solve the food waste problem through education and partnerships. The company offers a free iPhone and iPad app called Food Scrap Recycling Truck to teach children about the value of food waste recycling. Novamont is also a Core Partner of Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF)’s Food initiative and a member of EMF’s CE100 Network, which aims to accelerate the adoption of circular economy practices through resource efficiency. Novamont recently joined the United Nations’ Global Compact network, a leadership platform for the development and implementation of responsible corporate policies and practices, and was recently awarded the prestigious B Corp Certification with a top-tier ranking.

Novamont has its roots in an ambitious project to integrate chemistry, agriculture, and the environment that began in Italy over 30 years ago. Today, Novamont is a world leader in bioplastics and bio-based products development and production.

Novamont has been supplying MATER-BI resin to leading Canadian manufacturers of compostable waste bags, produce bags, and biodegradable mulch film for agriculture for over 16 years and recently developed a new compostable paper coating material. To learn more about how Novamont can support your company’s transition to the circular economy, visit northamerica.novamont.com.

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Many of the resources inside our electronics, including plastic, glass, gold, silver, and copper, can be recycled continuously without losing their properties. By recycling electronics, resources are recovered, and repurposed— reducing our overall carbon footprint and lessening our dependence on mining for new resources. Recycling with the Electronic Products Recycling Association (EPRA)/Recycle My Electronics programs also diverts e-waste from illegal export and Canadian landfills.

Safety and security count

Responsible recycling ensures the safe and secure destruction of personal data stored on hardware. We all have important information stored on our devices, and the security of our personal data is a valid concern. When you drop off electronics to an EPRA/Recycle My Electronics drop-off location, devices are quickly processed, shredded and their components are put back into the manufacturing supply chain.

The importance of accessibility

EPRA/Recycle My Electronics programs have a vast network of over 2,500 collection locations across Canada consisting of return-to-retail locations and authorized drop-off locations committed to recycling end-of-life electronics in a responsible manner. In fact, there’s a drop-off location within 30 minutes of most Canadians.

Electronic devices are filled with reusable resources – everything from glass and plastic to gold, silver and copper. Proper recycling allows these resources to be recovered responsibly and put back into the manufacturing supply chain.

Recycle My Electronics offers safe and secure recycling for your personal data protection, your business, and the environment.

The post What’s Inside Counts appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Our economy is linear — we extract raw materials and turn them into products, which eventually get thrown away. Recycling and efficiency measures are welcome, but they don’t change this logic — they only slow things down. Ultimately, the materials in our economy have a one-way journey to landfills, incinerators, or to become pollution in the environment.

This ‘take, make, waste’ linear economy, which relies on creating value mostly by depleting finite resources, cannot work in the long term and is fuelling the greatest global challenges facing us today, including the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The transition to a circular economy is an innovation and competitiveness agenda that requires collaboration from all stakeholders.

The circular economy, by contrast, builds economic and natural capital. It eliminates waste and pollution, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates natural systems. It gives us the option to grow prosperity, jobs, and resilience while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and pollution. A repair cafe that helps you fix your phone, to a more durably-designed T-shirt whose materials can be repurposed, a building that’s designed for disassembly, or packaging that’s grown rather than made — these are examples of what makes up the circular economy.

The transition to a circular economy is an innovation and competitiveness agenda that requires collaboration from all stakeholders. Designing for a circular economy is one of the great creative opportunities of our time, and it doesn’t stop at the product level — it’s systemic and compels us to think in terms of materials, processes, and business models.

The circular economy has garnered significant momentum in Canada. At the federal level, the Canadian government is hosting the 2021 edition of the landmark circular economy event of the year, the World Circular Economy Forum.

This gathering will see the launch of a report authored by the Council of Canadian Academies, commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada, to examine the potential of a transition to a circular economy for the country.

At the provincial level, Quebec created a circular economy platform in 2018 and saw recently saw the inauguration of the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research on the Circular Economy (CERIEC), a circular economy research centre with an initial $2.1 million of private funding. In February, the Quebec Research Fund announced a $5 million budget for the establishment of a provincial research network on the circular economy. By highlighting the economic rationale of a circular economy, identifying challenges and opportunities, and coordinating efforts, the province is taking a pioneering role in the transition in Canada.

At the city level, Toronto has an aspiration to become zero-waste and to be Ontario’s first city with a circular economy. Through the city’s Circular Economy and Innovation unit, Toronto is working to incorporate circular economy principles in its procurement processes and through various projects.

Progress isn’t limited to the public sector. In the plastics industry, the recently-launched Canada Plastics Pact brings together more than 50 organizations — including businesses from across the Canadian plastics value chain, alongside government institutions and NGOs — all working towards a common vision for a circular economy for plastic in Canada.
Through collaboration of the public and private sector, the enabling conditions can be built for circular innovation to thrive and scale, allowing Canada, its provinces, and its territories to find a path to better growth, benefiting its people, businesses, and environment.

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PPEC is proud that paper packaging is one of Canada’s original circular economies, and the infographic illustrates how packaging is made, and continuously remade into new paper-based packaging, through recycling.

While most paper packaging made in Canada is produced with recycled content, the paper fibres it was originally made from came from a tree. Less than half of one percent of Canadian commercial forests are harvested for paper packaging. Every hectare that’s harvested must be successfully regenerated, and more than 800 seedlings are planted in Canada every minute.

A mill produces the raw material used to make packaging, using mostly recycled content, and responsibly-sourced wood chips and sawmill residues. It’s then formed into big rolls of paper and sent to a converter, where it’s made into packaging products. Once used by the customer, it’s recycled, making its way back to the mill to start the process over again, and remade into new paper packaging.

The post The Canadian Paper Packaging Industry Focuses on Environmental Sustainability appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Johan Werme

Segment Sales Director, AR Packaging

Kathlyne Ross

Vice President, Product Development & Innovation, Loblaw Companies

The latest innovation in coffee packaging from Club Coffee is set to roll out at grocers across Canada this fall.

Canadians’ love for coffee runs deep. It’s the number-one consumed beverage in this country, even more than water. And we rank fifth in the world for consumption per capita. Java fans have high standards when it comes to their brew of choice — not just in taste and freshness, but in their desire for environmentally-friendly packaging, too.

Embracing new sustainable packaging options

That’s where Club Coffee comes in. Though you may not recognize the name, it’s a key to the success of many of North America’s best-known coffee brands. As Chief Innovation Officer Claudio Gemmiti explains, “We’re the little guy behind the big guys. We’re proud to have the responsibility and trust of leading coffee brands to take care of their needs, from roasting the beans to packaging the final product. We have the expertise to help them grow their business through innovation. We understand consumer trends and translate them into new opportunities.”

High on that list of trends is the consumer desire for sustainable options that reduce plastic waste. Club Coffee has shown that it’s serious about tackling that challenge. In 2016, it introduced PürPod100, the world’s first certified compostable coffee pod for the most common North American single-serve brewers. It was a resounding success, recognized with numerous awards for reducing plastic and coffee waste going into landfills.

That innovation was part of an overall Club Coffee circular economy-based approach that includes responsibly sourcing high-quality beans and designing sustainable, functional packaging. “From the CEO and president and all through the company, we’re committed to innovation,” says Gemmiti. “We invest in people and resources, and aim to be pioneers. We’re seen as leaders with a dedicated team of experts who are well-versed in coffee, packaging, and engineering.”

The beginning of a revolutionary new idea

Building on the success of the compostable pod, Club Coffee saw an opportunity in giving coffee lovers a new type of sustainable packaging to eliminate the multi-layered, plastic-lined coffee bags, plastic tubs, composite cans, and tins that had barely evolved in decades. Gemmiti recognized that Sweden-based AR Packaging had developed a packaging system called Boardio^® that looked like it could be adapted to meet coffee needs. AR Packaging is recognized as a leader in packaging, with 30 plants in 13 countries and with deep expertise in creating sustainable, innovative solutions for its clients.

Collaboration between the two companies resulted in a packaging system that uses paperboard to deliver a consumer-preferred package that’s recyclable and ready for upcycling into other consumer goods —the epitome of a circular economy. Made from wood fibre from sustainably-managed forests, Boardio^® ticks a lot of boxes for consumers (freshness, convenience, and paper-based, recyclable)while reducing the environmental footprint of packaged coffee.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Club Coffee has taken just 14 months to get the new packaging into production. “We’re confident that their launch of a completely new coffee packaging system in North America will inspire other companies to make a game-changing move towards a more circular society,” says Johan Werme, AR Packaging’s Segment Sales Director.

The intensified focus on plastic pollution in recent years creates a demand for new innovative packaging solutions, Werme notes. Club Coffee’s move to the paper-based Boardio^® package meets those demands with minimized use of plastics and reduced carbon emissions while ensuring excellent consumer convenience and maintaining the excellent protection of the coffee. “Club Coffee is a textbook example of how to do a market introduction of a new packaging solution,” says Werme. “We enjoy our close collaboration with the Club Coffee team very much. Together, we can drive change.”

A powerful strategic partnership

Consumers will find coffee products in Boardio^® packaging at Loblaw-owned grocery stores starting in October and rolling into 2022, according to Kathlyne Ross, Vice President, Product Development and Innovation at Loblaw Companies. Loblaws will be the first to introduce Boardio^® to Canadian shoppers, using it for about 35 stock-keeping units (SKUs), including the coffee roster of President’s Choice^® and no name^®. The strategic partnership between Loblaws and Club Coffee makes groundbreaking developments like Boardio^® possible. “It’s really the perfect marriage,” Ross says. “Club Coffee loves to be first in market for packaging innovations and we strive to be first in market for product innovations. It’s at the centre of everything we do.”

This isn’t the first time that Loblaws has teamed up with Club Coffee to shake up the category. It worked closely with Club Coffee on the creation of the PürPod100 certified compostable coffee pods. That type of project is very important to Loblaws. “We have a long history of corporate social responsibility, trying to make a difference with our products — for the environment and for the consumer,” says Ross. “It started over a decade ago with sustainable seafood and has grown since.”

Consumers have made it clear that they want to use less plastic. “They’re looking for the total package,” Ross explains. “Not just what’s inside or whether they’re enjoying it but knowing that President’s Choice^®, for example, is a brand they can trust. They can feel safe knowing that they can throw an empty coffee package in the recycling bin as easily as a milk carton without having to pull it apart. It’s a much clearer message and offers ease of use — something they’re looking for from our products.”

Loblaw stores sell tons of coffee, literally, so this shift to paper-based packaging is expected to have a significant impact because of the sheer volume. The retailer could divert over 500,000 pounds a year from landfills with this initiative. Until Boardio^® hits grocery shelves, the excitement is building among the partners involved. “It’s going to be fantastic,” says Ross.

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