Does recycle-ready cold brew packaging exist?
Recycle-ready cold brew packaging is a great way for coffee businesses today to demonstrate a clear commitment to sustainable values and better appeal to an increasingly eco-conscious consumer base.
As cold brew growth has exploded in recent years, driven by greater customer awareness, convenient beverage trends, and demand for coffee variety, packaging solutions have become more sophisticated and environmentally friendly.
Amcor, a global packaging manufacturer, recently won the Special Award category at the 35th Packaging Innovation Awards for its AmPrima Plus coffee packaging solution. This illustrates the role of the coffee industry in setting broader packaging trends.
In response to the award, Amcor’s coffee marketing manager, Giorgio Dini, said, “Coffee roasters are actively looking for ways to be more sustainable.”
“At the same time, they must preserve the freshness and aroma of their coffee, so any packaging change, first and foremost, needs to maintain product freshness.
“Our AmPrima Plus was the perfect solution for Nordic coffee leader Kjeldsberg, with whom we won this award. It is a mono-PE pouch that offers a high barrier to prolong the freshness of coffee…and is readily recyclable in most European countries as certified by Institute cyclos-HTP.”
Aluminium cans and glass bottles have been go-to packaging choices for coffee businesses retailing cold brew for off-site consumption, but alternative solutions, including flexible cold brew pouches and bag-in-box packaging, also offer distinct benefits across product performance, customer appeal, and recycle-readiness.
Read on for a breakdown of available recycle-ready cold brew packaging options.
Glass bottles
A fairly recent phenomenon, cold brew’s nascent popularity was driven by consumption in forward-thinking, innovative specialty coffee shops in the mid-2010s. Duane Sorenson, the founder of the pioneering specialty coffee roaster Stumptown, is credited with developing the first bottled ready-to-drink cold brew as we know it today, inspired by beer stubbies with a signature pull-tab cap.
Glass bottles of various types, ranging from single-serve individual portion sizes up to multi-serve ‘growlers’, are still common today. They are an affordable, recycle-ready solution widely available to coffee roasters around the world.
In an interview with Cold Brew Pak, Elmer Fajardo Pacheco and Lauren Reese of Anticonquista Café said, “We experimented with countless options, designs and techniques and ultimately decided that printing on bottles saves a lot of time and resources.”
In comparison to plastic bottles, glass is better at restricting CO2 from interacting with the cold brew, which can lead to flavour degradation. Plus, plastic contains more chemicals that can potentially permeate the liquid, including BPA, polycarbonate and phthalate.
Glass bottles are impermeable. Packaged correctly, they boast an airtight seal that keeps cold brew fresher for longer without impacting flavour or aroma. Once consumed, glass is easily recyclable, making it one of the most thoroughly recycled consumer goods materials.
In the United States, for example, glass recycling is simpler than plastic recycling. With plastic, consumers need to follow a multi-tiered recycling protocol requiring them to separate different plastic types before processing accurately. With glass, they just need to note the colour: green, brown, or clear.
Glass is a recycle-ready cold brew packaging solution. It is hygienic, protective, widely accessible, and, depending on local recycling regulations and procedures, environmentally friendly, but others are more sustainable.
Aluminium cans
Aluminium cans are the most popular recycle-ready cold brew packaging choice for ready-to-drink products. They are lightweight, robust, highly customisable and familiar.
Like glass, aluminium cans are infinitely recyclable with a good municipal recycling program. A study from The Aluminium Association found that aluminium cans have a consumer recycling rate of 45.2%, compared to 39.6% for glass bottles and just 20.3% for plastic bottles. They also comprise the highest amount of recycled content, at an average of 73%.
Aluminium cans are also lighter than glass, which helps reduce the carbon footprint of the businesses involved in their transportation while also offering a high degree of robustness and protection. Well-sealed cans protect against light exposure, oxygen, and moisture, enhancing performance and shelf life and mitigating contamination and spoiling.
Moreover, besides the top and bottom, most aluminium cans are highly customizable. With sophisticated laser printing, aluminium cans appeal to coffee businesses looking for recycle-ready cold brew packaging that also makes a strong and eye-catching impact on busy supermarket shelves.
Flexible cold brew pouches
Flexible cold brew pouches are a more recent packaging development. They build on the improvements of aluminium over glass but add greater environmentally friendly credentials and a higher degree of customisation.
Flexible cold brew pouches are made from 100% compostable and biodegradable materials, making them an ideal recycle-ready cold brew packaging solution. According to a 2023 report from McKinsey, a consulting firm, consumers view such materials as the most environmentally friendly options, more so than aluminium or glass.
Their flexibility also directly boosts sustainability credentials, as they can be packed more space-efficiently during transport, reducing the carbon footprint of the supply chain. Ten pouches occupy the same space as one glass bottle on a pallet, and once consumed, they collapse.
Instead of a rigid, round body, cold brew pouches have two large front and back panels, increasing a coffee company’s brandable real estate and making a more significant impact in-store. The LDPE and PLA biodegradable plastic used is highly customisable via hot foil stamping, spot glossing, embossing, varnishing, and more.
Finally, unlike aluminium cans, recycle-ready cold brew packaging pouches come in a range of sizes, from 187 ml to three litres, for single or multi-serve needs.
Bag-in-box cold brew packaging
Bag-in-box cold brew packaging solutions share many of the same benefits as flexible cold brew pouches as a recycle-ready cold brew packaging option.
They are comprised of two main elements; an aseptic, biodegradable plastic inner bag and a 100% compostable kraft paper and corrugated cardboard outer box. Both components are recyclable. The user must simply separate the two components and recycle them according to local regulations.
The bag-in-box size options are vast, from smaller 1.5-litre formats for easy at-home dispensing to office-friendly 20-litre boxes. This range helps coffee businesses open up new sales opportunities and build both B2B and B2C channels.
The large, square cardboard outer is immensely customisable and offers a huge space for brand storytelling and sustainable messaging, endearing existing customers and capturing the attention of new ones.
Cold Brew Pak offers a massive range of customisable, flexible cold brew pouches, bag-in-box packaging, and RTD aluminium cans to suit every coffee brand’s needs. Our products boast a vast array of sustainable certifications issued by Din Certco, including compostable, sustainably sourced, recyclability #4, and certified recyclable.
For more information about sourcing your own line of recycle-ready cold brew packaging, visit our website or contact the team directly.
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Recycle-ready cold brew packaging
