We just wanted to take some time to explain our packaging choices of late. We appreciate those of you that have been with us a while will have seen many changes, and to those of you that are new to Rave Welcome, we hope this helps you understand our choices.
It’s important to say we are not claiming to be experts on the topic of environmentally friendly packaging, but we have done a fair bit of reading (much of it being conflicting information) tested many sample coffee bags and the long and short is - that the perfect coffee bag doesn’t exist… just yet.
We rebranded RAVE in December 2019 - we spent months prior to this trying to find the best coffee bags on the market that aligned with our criteria.
MAINTAINS COFFEE FRESHNESSECO CONSCIOUS MATERIAL(COMPOSTABLE/BIODEGRABLE/RECYCLABLE)STRONG AND DURABLE(CAN HANDLE BEING THROWN AROUND IN TRANSIT)ONE WAY VALVE + RESEALABLE ZIP
When we made the move away from the old plastic foil lined pouches we were sent samples of an 'oxo-biodegradable' packaging, which we were super happy with. However this was mis sold as when the printed bags arrived we ended up with 'oxo-degradable' packaging (we won’t bore you, but do read about the difference!) When we questioned the company it seems they didn't really know what they were selling and held conflicting information on their own products.
Still keen to get a more environmentally friendly product we switched suppliers and ordered biodegradable bags - but unfortunately we were in the middle of the pandemic and the factory that creates the material had temporarily closed and our only choice was to go with a ‘recyclable’ material.
So, our current bags are made from LDPE (Low density polythene) which bears the recyclable 4 logo, most major supermarkets have a carrier bag recycling point where the bags can be placed for recycling.
Recyclable & Biodegradable both have pros and cons - neither of which we are entirely comfortable with on an environmental level. ‘Biodegradable’ is a real buzz word but do we really understand it’s impact? We’re still reading and learning but it’s clear that in terms of packaging it's not just about what happens when we are finished with it - but what environmental impact the production of these materials have.
On to the Clips - Here at Rave we loved them.
You lot RAVED about them (good & bad!) many of you dislike them and see them as wasteful, but contrary to this many of you love them and have found some ingenious ways to repurpose them. For those of you that order coffee regularly we appreciate they accumulate, but please REUSE, REUSE, REUSE! (...or gift to a stationery loving friend!) We will be moving away from these shortly.
Moral of the story you can’t keep 100% of people happy 100% of the time. And that’s ok.
CONCLUSION:
We are switching to a flat bottom pouch with a zip lower down the bag so the label can be attached securely. This should make the labels more secure in transit.
Our ideal bag would be made of a home compostable material, but the packaging industry isn’t quite there yet, sure compostable material exists but not alongside a one way valve, tear off zip with the durability and oxygen barrier we require.
Our coffee bags will be recyclable until we find a better product on the market!
