What's
your poison? Are you a Latte lass, a Mocha
man, or an Americano afficionado? Does
the thought of starting or getting through the day without your caffeine fix
leave you rigid with fear or dread? Have you got one of those t-shirts that
says "Give me the coffee, and nobody gets hurt"?
To
a lot of people, coffee's not important.
They don't understand what all the fuss about, and why this particular
substance has now become the second most traded world commodity (after oil), and
that's fair enough. We can't all like
the same things. But to those of us who love it or feel we cannot live without
it, coffee feels like the closest thing to the prospect of eternal life. With more than 20,000 coffee shops and an ever-growing number of branded chains in the UK alone, tea sales are reportedly in free-fall, as coffee
officially outstrips Britain's "traditional" drink of choice.
But
how sustainable is your coffee habit? Do
you buy your morning or lunchtime fix in a disposable cup that then has to be
gotten rid of, or do you take your reusable mug to the shop and get them to
fill it for you? Do you buy "any
old coffee as long as it's cheap", or your specific favourite, no matter
where it's come from or how it's packaged?
Or are you committed to buying Fairtrade coffee in recyclable
packaging? It may not be something you've even thought about, but maybe it's
time to start.
Consider
this: On average, most of the world's coffee is produced in third world countries,
where the coffee farmers receive just 10% of the eventual retail price of all
the coffee they produce. This is largely
because the supply chain that governs coffee is so complex. The result is over 100 million people growing
coffee around the world who have missed out, traditionally, on most of coffee's
profit potential. 70% of growers are smallholders and, as
competition grows, a combination of price reductions and price wars (which are
great for us as consumers) has left them exposed to the fluctuations of an
incredibly volatile market. Along with the negative impact this has had on their
living conditions, the drive for increased output has had a domino effect on
their environments as well, and given that most coffee growing regions are also
home to some of the most delicate eco-systems on our planet, the potential for
serious and long term - if not irreparable - damage is high.
Reports
suggest that the biggest source of environmental damage sustained in coffee
production happens during the production of the beans themselves. Coffee grown
by traditional means has been cultivated under a shaded canopy of trees, providing
an important habitat for native animals and insects as well as preventing
topsoil erosion and removing the need for chemical-based fertilizers. But the global
surge in demand has had a big impact on the growing methods used, with massive
implications on sustainability. Market demand has outstripped supply for this form
of agriculture to keep pace with, and the result is coffee being grown with no
forested canopies, with fertilisers becoming a necessity with a seriously
detrimental effect on biodiversity. As a consequence of the need to
"upgrade" growing methods to keep pace with demand, millions of acres
of forest across the world have been cleared to make way for coffee farming. The
WWF have observed that 37 of the 50 countries in the world with the highest
deforestation rates are also coffee producers.
Happily,
awareness of the plight of these coffee growers is increasing among those who
have the power to make a positive difference.
More importers and consumers are beginning to understand that Fairtrade
coffee cuts out the middleman, which gives farmers' cooperatives the chance to
deal directly with retailers and ensure that coffee is bought at a price in
line with what it costs to produce. The extra proceeds the farmers glean are
then plowed back into investment in social and business development projects in
their local areas such as scholarship programmes, healthcare services and
quality improvement training. Fairtrade also provides significant protection
against market fluctuations that would otherwise threaten the farmers' ability
to make a living wage.
According to the Fairtrade Foundation, more
than 6.4 million cups of Fairtrade coffee are now consumed each day, as an
active consumer choice. Organic coffee sales are steadily increasing and a
whole host of new Fairtrade brands have appeared on supermarket shelves, which
are providing a wider ethical choice. Nevertheless, Fairtrade's six million
cups pales in comparison to the overall total of around 70 million cups of
coffee being consumed per day. The message is getting through but at
less than 10%, we still have a long way to go!
Fairtrade
aside, when it comes to reducing the environmental impact closer to home of a
daily coffee habit, more and more businesses are starting to incorporate sustainable
practice into the way they do business in general, and are thinking more about
the cups they provide to their customers to drink from. The big coffee chains (and some of the
smaller ones too!) are constantly attempting to source disposable cups that are
kind to the environment. Your cardboard cup might look and feel recyclable, but
think again - many manufacturers coat the inside of these with plastic
that effectively stops the cardboard absorbing the coffee but renders the ability to separate the two substances, in order to recycle the cardboard outer, an expensive and complicated process. Manufacturers
are finding and starting to offer biodegradable solutions, and the hope is that
they will be able to produce them cost effectively enough for the chains to agree
to buy them. It's all about profit margins,
of course!
But
it's not just about what the businesses are doing. As consumers, we ALSO have huge power to make a positive difference, through taking fair responsibility
for our environment. And, with increasing numbers of us opting to live
more sustainably and help to preserve what's left of our natural resources, the
bigger coffee chains have started offering customers an attractive retail line in
reusable mugs, in an effort to persuade them to ditch the disposable option and
go for what's reusable. So have some of the Service stations that offer their
own coffee brands aimed towards people obtaining fuel, It's a lot more common now to see people
wandering about with their coffee "on the go", in a properly branded or cheerful, designer or funky mug. It's an important step forward, in reducing
waste, since most disposable cups end up in High Street bins, or office wastepaper
baskets, instead of in an appropriate recycling bin or box. It's not always
realistic of course, to assume we can carry a reusable mug everywhere we go
(particularly if we happen to have a super-small handbag!), but there's no harm
in keeping one in the car, and using it when we get the chance. After all, if we're getting a drive thru coffee,
or doing a quick double-park to dash in and get one, it's no hassle to have a travel
mug and take it with us, so they can pour our coffee straight into our very own
mug.
For
those of us who brew coffee at home, there are also some great ways to be
sustainable with the waste. While coffee
machines that take metal or plastic cartridges have limited and perhaps questionable opportunities for
recycling both the coffee and the cartridges, the good old fashioned coffee
plunger or filter machine enables good access to dregs that can be used in a
variety of ways. Adding coffee grounds to soil will reduce the pH level
and it will turn your hydrangea flowers a beautiful blue. They'll keep slugs at
bay, attract soil-enriching worms to your garden and keep cats out of it. They will also unclog your drains (with enough
running water to help them), absorb smells in the fridge, act as a flea
repellent for your dog, blend with cream for a great exfoliation treatment, and
more besides. Used coffee grounds are so recyclable, it would be a huge
opportunity lost, not to use them.
70
million cups of coffee drunk here in the UK every single day is a lot, and however
much of that is served up in disposable cups that end up in landfill is still
too much. And those farmers across the
world who help to make all that coffee available, and who have yet to get on
the Fairtrade wagon, are struggling endlessly to provide for their families as
the rise and fall in raw coffee prices leaves them uncontrollably vulnerable to
the effects of the fluctuations.
We
love our tipple, but we do need to protect it, and bring an end to the unfair
exploitation of the people who provide it for us. We also need to consider our own environment,
and the implications of all that landfill.
Our disposable cups don't end up in a vortex that sucks them into some black hole and out of
existence. They stay here on earth,
clogging up the landfill sites and taking forever to decompose. Polystyrene, in particular, is a nasty
substance that still awaits a really responsible way to be recycled. It's less common than it used to be, but it's
still out there, and we need to avoid it, so the demand falls to the level
where it's no longer an option for production.
