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A lighter, tougher, cheaper, easy to handle new bag that is 100% recyclable.
2 of 2
A lighter, tougher, cheaper, easy to handle new bag that is 100% recyclable.
Specialty coffee exporter Bourbon Coffees has unveiled an innovative new recyclable plastic-lined paper sack that holds 30 kilos of green coffee.
The innovation bag is based on tough multi-ply paper sacks used for concrete. Bourbon, a specialty wholesaler and warehouse headquartered in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, added a zip open bottom and machine sewn opening. The interior plastic lining is heat sealed to keep the coffee dry during shipping and storage. The bags are easier to handle than 60-kilo jute and they afford better protection of coffee quality.
Brazil’s Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA) showcased the bags during the most recent Cup of Excellence competition. A presentation by Fernando Silveira Bruno for bag manufacturer Klabin described the process and science behind the bags which took more than three years to develop. The bag was perfected with the help of researchers at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), he said. Klabin is Brazil’s largest paper producer and exporter.
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An international panel of cuppers on the final day of the competition evaluated coffee samples stored in conventional bags against the identical coffee stored in the new paper bags. Unprotected, the green coffee picked up unpleasant flavor notes from the jute. Cuppers penalized the coffee an average five points. The same coffee, sealed a year ago in the new sack, retained its original score.
Gabriel C. Dias, a principal at Bourbon and the owner of Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama, said the company, concerned about protecting its best micro-lots of coffee “first used vacuum bags, then the 20kg plastic bags (modeled on bags use to hold dog food, but stronger)” before achieving success with the new paper/plastic 30 kg bags.
The bags are less expensive than jute lined with plastic, quicker to close on the fill line and fully recyclable.
“All you need to do after zipping open the bottom is to reach in and grab the plastic liner which gives way readily,” he demonstrated. The paper and plastic is then recycled.