The State of Compostable and Biodegradable Coffee Bags

You may have noticed our new block bottom and pocket zipper bag style on the shelves and asked yourself, “What’s up with that?” In addition to sitting better on flat surfaces, thus sparing the patience of our beloved grocery store employees, zippers can preserve a coffee’s lifespan by providing a tight seal to keep out oxygen and moisture. If you know anything about us, we love to prolong the issue.

Additionally, we are often asked if our bags are either compostable or biodegradable. The short answer is no; the medium answer is that no coffee bag is commercially biodegradable or compostable; the long answer is that all compostable or biodegradable products associated with food service need to be sent to an industrial or commercial facility in order to break-down, as home composting bins can rarely provide the control needed to replicate the necessary conditions for decomposition.

Throwing yet another wrench into this system, commercial composting facilities in Oregon do not accept biodegradable or compostable food service ware, including coffee bags, for reasons ranging from contamination to flat-out failure for these products to break down. Furthermore, coffee bags would require an additional industrial step to remove materials like ink and plastic linings before they could be composted.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) released a helpful guide as to why they don't accept these products that can be found at https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/Documents/MessagefromComposter-En.pdf

Our apologies for the short novel but we are passionate about transparency and increasing the knowledge base of both ourselves and our customers. The first draft was also twice as long, so you’re welcome.