The scheme is the first in the UK to see waste from coffee grounds collected and turned into eco-friendly biofuel pellets which can be used to heat homes and offices.
The Angel AIM Business Improvement District has teamed up with Beanergi – who transform the coffee – to offer the service to local Islington cafés free of charge.
Coffee waste is collected from cafés everyday and taken to Beanergi’s central recycling facility where it is squashed into pellets which can be used to fuel biomass stoves or boilers. The company is currently working with 17 different businesses across London and has been in talks with big names such as McDonald’s and Costa.
“People tend to focus very heavily on where they get their coffee from but no one is really thinking about what happens to it at the end. That’s where we step in” said Mark Nielsen, operations manager at Beanergi. “Over the next few weeks I’ll be knocking on the doors of lots of businesses to tell them about the scheme.
“Recycling coffee waste is growing in popularity and so is biomass fuel, so it really is an exciting time to be doing this. Businesses in the Angel area have no reason to not join our scheme because it is completely free for them – it might even save them money if they currently pay to have their waste coffee picked up – and they will be making a difference to the environment.”
Although some coffee chains have been experimenting with other ways to use their waste grounds, including making washing detergents, bioplastics and biodiesel, the majority still goes to waste.
CoffeeWorks Project on Islington High Street was one of the first to become involved. The owner, Peter Theoklitou, said: “I’d like to think that we are a socially responsible business anyway and we wanted to minimise our environmental impact. We had quite an established recycling programme but we wanted to go beyond that and see what we could do with our coffee.”
Kipferl Austrian Deli in Camden Passage have signed up and local favourite Breakfast Club are set to join the programme in the near future. Additionally any café, bar, restaurant or office in the Angel area producing more than 2kg of coffee a day is welcome to join the scheme free of charge.
For a list of the best places to get an energy boost of your own in Islington, check out our list of the best coffee houses in the borough!
Do you have a contact name, phone number and email address for anyone at beanergi? Thanks.
Peter Munnelly
Customer Services
London Borough of Islington
07718 579155
0207 527 6066