Prepared for the Low Carbon Team at Auckland Council & Waitematā Local Board by May 2018 - Business Food Waste Initiative 2017-2018 for Waitematā ...
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Business Food Waste Initiative 2017-2018 for
Waitematā Local Board.
Prepared for the Low Carbon Team at Auckland
Council & Waitematā Local Board
by
May 2018
Executive Summary
EcoMatters Environment Trust was engaged to participate in a pilot project to collect and
re-distribute coffee grounds from up to 10 cafes in the Waitematā Local Board area as a
trial to start diverting organic waste from cafes from landfill. EcoMatters worked closely with
current active groups such as ‘The Kelmarna Community Garden’, social enterprise and
other local community gardens. At the end of the trial we provided results of coffee
grounds diverted, and recommendations of next steps.
Our collection started on 27th October 2017 and ended on the 27 April 2018, total collection
period was 30 weeks.
EcoMatters contracted compost collective tutor Judy Keats to engage the cafes to work
with the local community gardens to utilise the coffee grounds and to assist with increasing
capacity within the community gardens to accept these resources.
Every Friday we held weekly collections from each café, weighed the contents and
measured the distance travelled en route to the gardens.
Towards the end of the campaign, café contacts were invited to open days at ‘The
Kelmarna Community Garden’ to see how the cycle was completed and encourage
continued support of the process.
It was decided that we would only profile two cafes, as they were fully engaged in the pilot.
We hope that by profiling these cafes, we will help to raise the profile of their sustainability
journey and encourage other cafes to follow suit. The profiles will be posted on the
EcoMatters & Waitematā facebook pages, also ‘Heart of the city’ , Grey Lynn 2030, and
the Business association.
EcoMatters feels positive that after this pilot that there can be progress in food waste
reduction within cafes, they simply need support to take the next step. Despite where they
are on the ‘Zero Waste journey’, for those that are further down this road there are always
improvements. Having the ability to work more closely with them in this space is greatly
needed, as well as supporting the community gardens.
EcoMatters would like to thank the Waitematā Local Board for funding this pilot and hope
that some of the learnings can inform future steps in this area.
1
Cafes Involved
Cafes were selected due to proximity to starting point, gardens and willingness to be
involved. Unfortunately, it wasn't until nearer the end of the pilot that it was observed
that both ‘The Twisted Cafe’ and ‘The Corner Cafe’ fell outside of the Waitematā Local
Board area.
Number Business name Date initiated Physical Address
149 Point Chevalier Rd, Point
1 Twisted Tomato cafe 27/10/2017 Chevalier
2 Grato cafe 27/10/2017 104 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn
3 Allpress cafe Ponsonby 03/11/2017 266 Ponsonby Rd
4 Kokako 03/11/2017 537 Great North Road, Grey Lynn
157 Pt Chevalier Rd, Point
5 The Corner Cafe 03/11/2017 Chevalier
6 Seabreeze 03/11/2017 184 Garnet Rd, Westmere
7 Ripe 03/11/2017 172 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn
8 Richmond Rd Cafe - Hip Group 05/11/2017 318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn
9 Craft Kitchen 10/11/2017 2 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn
10 Rushworth 08/02/2018 1-17 Jellicoe St
11 Orphans Kitchen 23/02/2018 118 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn
Community Gardens Involved
A total of 7 community gardens were involved in the pilot.
Number Community Garden Physical Address
1 Dignan St Community garden 255-259 Symonds Street
2 The Homestead Community garden 92 Pt Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier
3 The Sanctuary Community garden 1 Carrington Rd, Building 40 Unitec, Mt Albert
4 Kingsland Community Orchard 48 Bond Street, Kingsland
5 St Colombo Community garden 92 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn
6 Kelmarna 12 Hukanui Crescent, Herne Bay
7 Kaipatiki 17 Lauderdale Rd, Birkdale
2
Cafes Current Composting Situation
As you can see from the table below, only three of the cafes that were involved in the pilot
already had an organics collection. It was found that 3 of the 11 had separate collections
but they were not being utilised correctly. This was an opportunity to highlight correct bin
use and an opportunity to keep a portion to be used locally.
One of the barriers for the pilot was communication with the cafes. Some failed to
understand the purpose of the pilot, and assumed that ecomatters needed the coffee
grounds. With some of the cafes, the purpose was not established until some way into the
pilot.
Despite some of the cafes having a ‘We compost’ collection, we tried to encourage All
Press and Kokako to utilize their local community gardens for drop off of the coffee
grounds. We pointed out that ‘We compost’, despite having a wonderful service, still
transports all its organic waste to Envirofert in Tuakau. As this is approximately 65 km
away, it was a better outcome to deliver them to community gardens in terms of CO2
emissions.
Number Business name Initial status Status Quo
1 Twisted Tomato cafe Not Composting
2 Grato cafe Not Composting
3 Allpress cafe Ponsonby WeCompost
4 Kokako WeCompost, some local collections
5 The Corner Cafe Not Composting
6 Seabreeze Not Composting Very keen for on-site composting
Some coffee grounds being
7 Ripe Not Composting collected
8 Richmond Rd Cafe - Hip Group Not Composting
Some coffee grounds being
9 Craft Kitchen Not Composting collected
10 Rushworth Not Composting
11 Orphans Kitchen Compost bins on site
3
Cafe Collection Stats
Below is a table showing results from the collection;
❖ Number of visits
❖ KG of coffee grounds collected
❖ Number of bags collected
Total
Date # of collected Total No. Kg CO2e per kg
# Business name initiated Visits (kg) Bags organic waste
1 Twisted Tomato cafe 27/10/2017 24 525.2 37 154
2 Grato cafe 27/10/2017 26 481.2 29 140
3 Allpress cafe Ponsonby 03/11/2017 23 928.6 51 164
4 Kokako 03/11/2017 22 651.7 62 134
5 The Corner Cafe 03/11/2017 25 615.9 49 167
6 Seabreeze 03/11/2017 25 1049.9 138 259
7 Ripe 03/11/2017 23 558.3 57 160
Richmond Rd Cafe - Hip
8 Group 05/11/2017 24 1239.3 135 288
9 Craft Kitchen 10/11/2017 23 868.1 128.4 209
10 Rushworth 08/02/2018 2 0.2 2 39
11 Orphans Kitchen 23/02/2018 10 235 0 85
Totals 227 7,153.40 688.40 1809
Totals 178 6,012.30 647.40 1396
*Red totals, are excluding Twisted Tomato & The Corner Cafe.
4
Cafe Collection Run
The below table outlines the ‘pick up’ and ‘drop off’ run for the collection and distribution.
Red indicates cafes and green indicates the community gardens.
Judy also works at Kaipātiki as a volunteer coordinator so she would take any excess coffee
grounds to Kaipātiki. This is not included in the km stats as Judy would be making this
journey regardless.
To pick up from 11 cafes, and deliver to 7 community gardens took 23.7km per week.
An estimate was drawn, if all 11 cafes were sending their coffee grounds to Redvale landfill
this would be 403.30km per week as opposed to 10.95km per week to local community
gardens. This combined with the impact of using the compost on the gardens, is a carbon
saving of around 1.4t CO2 equivalent over this time period, or what it would take to drive
from Auckland to Wellington 10 times in a medium sized petrol car.
Business name Physical Address Km
Judy Home Huia rd, Pt Chevalier. Starting point
Seabreeze 184 Garnet Rd, Westmere 2.1
Dignan St Community garden 25 Dignan Street, Pt Chevalier 2.2
The Corner Cafe 157 Pt Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier 1
Twisted Tomato cafe 149 Point Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier 0.42
The Homestead Community garden 92 Pt Chevalier Rd, Point Chevalier 0.35
The Sanctuary Community garden 1 Carrington Rd, Building 40 Unitec, Mt Albert 1.7
Kokako 537 Great North Road, Grey Lynn 3.9
Kingsland Community Orchard 48 Bond Street, Kingsland 1.3
Grato cafe 104 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn 1.9
Ripe 172 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn 0.26
Richmond Rd Cafe - Hip Group 318 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn 0.8
St Colombo Community garden 92 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn 1
Kelmarna 12 Hukanui Cres, Herne Bay 1.6
Craft Kitchen 2 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn 2.4
Orphans Kitchen 118 Ponsonby Rd, Grey Lynn 0.5
Allpress cafe Ponsonby 266 Ponsonby Rd 0.8
Kelmarna 12 Hukanui Cres, Herne Bay 1.5
Total km per week 23.73
5
Cafe’s findings
● Extremely difficult to engage with the cafe owner as they were very rarely on-site, this
made it hard to get ‘buy in’ and commitment from staff, (lack of time, language,
interest, & understanding)
● Lack of cafe staff time to engage and explain the programme to
● Cafe owner never on site
● Contamination in coffee grounds (milk bottle lids, serviettes, sugar sachets)
● Despite being giving a poster to put up in the cafe to explain the programme, none of
the cafes put up the poster. Some had a ‘no poster policy’ and others just didn't get
round to it, despite being reminded.
● Some cafes had customers picking up coffee grounds from outside. This was ad hoc
and if the grounds didnt get collected these would then go into the landfill bin.
● Resistance to paying money for a such a service, including food collection
● Hard to establish current waste collection services, as cafe staff themselves were
unsure.
● Two out of the 11 cafes made it to the open hour at Kelmarna Gardens. These were
All Press and Richmond Road.
Community Garden findings
● Lack of personnel on site regularly
● Lack of expertise in composting techniques
● Lack of infrastructure (Proper composting bays or large scale Bokashi bins)
● Unable to process large amounts of mixed food waste, as cafe waste is mostly,
bread,or cooked food, these items are unable to go into a cold compost system
Recommendation
● Work more closely with three or four cafes that showed a keen interest during the
pilot (All Press & Richmond Road)
● Conduct a waste Audit (Use WasteMinz Methodology)
● Encourage separating out food waste with kitchen (non processed) waste first
● Trial starting a Bokashi system
● Incentivise staff (money) to attend a workshop, outlining the following;
○ Waste issue (overall in Auckland)
○ Why it’s an issue having food waste in landfills
○ Teach them how to use Bokashi systems
○ Set up kitchen caddies in the cafe
○ Set up the Bokashi bins
● Work with the ‘Kelmarna Garden’ on a price structure to pick up and swap out the full
Bokashi bins.
6
● Purchase Bokashi bins (starter kits) for the cafes, and food caddie bins.
● Signage on bins
Appendix Items
● Appendix 1 - Pilot Info Sheet
● Appendix 2 - Cafe Poster
● Appendix 3 - Sign up letter
● Appendix 4 - Certificate & Results
● Appendix 5 - Next Step Info Sheet (this was on the back of the certificate)
● Appendix 6 - ‘Allpress’ Profile
● Appendix 7 - ‘Richmond Road’ Profile
7Appendix 1 - Pilot Info Sheet
8Appendix 2 - Cafe Poster
9Appendix 3 - Sign up letter
10Appendix 4 - Certificate & Results
11Appendix 5 - Next Steps
12Appendix 6 - ‘Allpress’ Profile
HOW SUSTAINABILITY BECAME A WAY OF LIFE FOR
ALLPRESS COFFEE
In just half a year, we’ve worked with 11 cafes to divert 7,153kg of coffee grounds from
landfill. This was part of a pilot project to collect used coffee grounds from cafes in
Waitematā and compost them to feed the soil in local community gardens.
Allpress Coffee at 266 Ponsonby Road was one of the cafes that took part in the project,
and their cafe alone contributed a whopping 928.6kg of used coffee grounds. We talked
to the team at Allpress about why they signed up, and what else they’re doing to lead the
way in sustainability.
What motivates Allpress to do things sustainably?
The motivation comes from our people. We are lucky in our industry and at Allpress to
have fantastic motivated and deeply caring people who believe in the “every little bit
counts” philosophy. The belief that sustainability is not only “the right thing to do” but a
way of a life and therefore a must do for our people, our customers and our communities
both current and future motivates all of us.
What did you start with?
One of the many by-products of roasting coffee is the hessian sacks that our green
beans arrive in. You can imagine we go through a lot of coffee sacks each week… so, in
2010, we started our Recycle-a-Sack initiative; an easy gold coin in exchange for a coffee
sack. Ever since we first put out the crate of sacks at our Ponsonby Road Espresso Bar,
it was a huge success.
We’ve now expanded to all of our twelve locations around the world. We leave it up to
the local schools to choose how they spend the money and over the years more than
$50,000 has been donated. It’s been used for a variety of projects; from purchasing
musical equipment, contributing to a new school hall, gardening costs… and then some!
What other sustainability actions does Allpress take?
We partner with our good friends Steve & Gemma from We Compost for both of our
Auckland Espresso Bars, our Roastery and our café partners in central Auckland. For our
Christchurch Café & Service Hub we partner with Cultivate Christchurch and at our
Dunedin Roastery we have our own worm farm that takes care of our composting.
13All of our packaging that comes out of our four New Zealand cafés is compostable or
recyclable.
In 2010 we started using BioPak Allpress branded takeaway cups and lids which are
commercially compostable.
We’re in the final stages of developing an Allpress reusable cup to minimise the amount
of single use cups we’re putting out into the world – watch this space!
We’re also working on our wholesale coffee packaging, which will soon be 100%
environmentally friendly.
We partner with a number of organisations who are doing good not just environmentally
but socially e.g. Nga Rangatahi Toa, Child Matters.
Why did you decide to sign up to our coffee grounds collection pilot?
We were stoked when you guys approached us and it didn’t take us long to know we
wanted to be a part of what you do. We’re super happy to have joined forces with a local
organisation that we admire and respect.
This pilot service was funded by the Waitematā Local Board through L
ive Lightly
campaign, and delivered by EcoMatters in partnership with the C ompost Collective.
See more photos from Allpress Coffee’s visit to Kelmarna Gardens h
ere
14Appendix 7 - ‘Richmond Road’ Profile
WHY SUSTAINABILITY AT RICHMOND RD CAFE
ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS THEY USE
In just half a year, we’ve worked with 11 cafes to divert 7,153kg of coffee grounds from
landfill. This was part of a pilot project to collect used coffee grounds from cafes in
Waitematā and compost them to feed the soil in local community gardens.
Richmond Rd Cafe at 318 Richmond Rd, run by hospitality leaders H ipgroup, was one of
the cafes that took part in the project. The cafe alone contributed more than a 1200kg of
used coffee grounds. We talked to the team at Hipgroup about why they signed up, and
what else they’re doing to lead the way in sustainability.
What does sustainability mean to you at Hipgroup?
Sustainability to us isn’t just the never-ending supply of an ingredient. It branches out
from this one word ‘sustainability’ and filters through all aspects of our sourcing and the
entire way we function. Sustainability is respect, it’s the practice of being mindful and
less wasteful, growing and sourcing from local independent suppliers, composting,
recycling, growing our own, understanding supply and seasons, using by-catch, skin
blemished produce and less popular proteins – it’s an holistic approach that informs our
intentions. Sustainability also holds space for our people, in creating careers and growth
– our business model needs to sustain our people and the life ahead of it.
What sustainable actions can cafes start with?
Our advice to others is to perhaps start with split waste management. Start with
minimising waste, and wherever possible repurposing it.
Why did you decide to sign up to our coffee grounds collection pilot?
We decided to sign up to the coffee grounds pilot for all of these reasons along with a
greater sense of being involved in our community. Caring about our product, our places,
our people, and doing everything we can to make the experience exceptional.
This pilot service was funded by the Waitematā Local Board through L
ive Lightly
campaign, and delivered by EcoMatters in partnership with the C ompost Collective.
See more photos from Allpress Coffee’s visit to Kelmarna Gardens h
ere
15Photo Gallery
Patrick and Richard from Allpress Coffee and Lara and Thomas from Richmond Rd Cafe
visit Kelmarna Gardens to see the herbs, vegetables and fruit trees that have been
nourished by their coffee grounds.
16You can also read
