Roasting, waste, and transporting coffee to and from our customers: everything we can control is circular. Sometimes even regenerative. The process produces more raw materials than we put in. This is what The Circle of Beans looks like now.
It all starts with the Arabica coffee beans. These come in large bags by boat from coffee countries around the equator. An international coffee broker distributes the bags in Antwerp and delivers them to coffee roasters by truck. As Fair Trade as it can be. Unfortunately, this is not circularly organized, yet.
We roast the coffee to a slow roast in the Circle of Beans roastery in Ede. The coffee roaster runs on biofuel, which we extract from that same coffee.
The slow roast coffee is then delivered to our customers in reusable, square buckets. We also take their coffee grounds (coffee waste) with us in the Circle of Beans vans and cars that run on biofuel. Our biofuel. We’re also transitioning our partner MAAS to run on our biofuel. Also to their other customers who’re (not yet) drinking our coffee.
Do you work in a company of +/- 100 employees and do you drink regular coffee? Then your company throws this away unnecessarily* (annually):
± 600
coffee packages
± 75
cardboard boxes
± 1,5 tons
Coffee grounds
*Coffee packed per kilo and per 8 bags in 1 cardboard box. You can make about 130 cups of coffee with 1 bag. An average of 3 cups of coffee per employee is served in offices (daily).
In 2021 we have extracted 1,250 m3 biofuel from coffee grounds.
We use 950 M3 ourselves
300 M3 is left for alternative solutions
With our combined efforts we make a substantial contribution to at least two Social Development Goals of the United Nations. These goals lay the foundation for a better and more sustainable world for all of us.
They must end poverty, inequality, and climate change by 2030. The core of this program is the permanent transfer of parts of the value chain from Western Europe to the countries of origin. We create economic value there by investing locally and ensuring that the quality of life of local communities improves significantly.
