TORRANCE, Calif., US – Some take their coffee black, but at Farmer Brothers Co. they take their coffee green – thanks to an expanded recycling and waste diversion program that will help reduce the landfill-bound waste to zero by the year 2015.
Following the SEED (social, environmental, and economic development) model, they have invested resources to increase recycling, repurposing, and composting, and minimizing the environmental impact of their industry-leading coffees, teas, and spices.
From an environmental perspective, Farmer Brothers have focused on diverting recyclable and compostable waste away from landfills in order to prolong the lifecycle of plastics and other byproducts and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The social aspect is about people: removing landfill waste from communities where we live and work and creating a company culture that attracts and retains socially conscious talent.
Farmers Bros is a business, so to make all this work they have also looked at the economic benefits of creating additional revenue streams from former landfill products and reducing fuel and tipping-related costs from landfill hauling.
The goal is to have zero waste bound for landfills by the end of 2015 through smart practices and innovation, and they have been working with our partners to identify opportunities.
“Farmer Brothers is genuinely committed to waste reduction. Throughout their processes, they are actively working to increase recycling, composting and looking for new opportunities to reduce waste. Waste Management is proud to be partnering with Farmer Brothers and we look forward to continued success and helping them reach zero waste,” says Trevor Kitchen, Major Account Manager for Waste Management.
The drive to reduce waste has been led by recycling the byproduct packaging waste from the packaging machines, removing an estimated 1,500,000 pounds of packaging waste from landfills each year.
They are also repurposing the fiber bags used for shipping green coffee. They can be used as weed control in reclamation projects, tools for local farmers harvesting fruits and vegetables, bag-and-burlap for tree plantings, and much more.
Farmer Brothers receives over 500,000 pounds of fiber bags per year, and where most of these were once bound for landfills, today we have a waiting list for organizations eager to extend the useful life of these bags.
Another success has been taking at least 15,000 pounds per month of chaff at their Portland facility left over from coffee processing and selling this material to companies producing natural fertilizers.
These and many more innovations developed Farmer Brothers’ team are what have put them on the road to zero landfill-bound waste and will help them meet their goal by 2015.
