“It is always a fulfilling experience to work with a customer like Toby’s Estate who are especially passionate about improving their recycling.”
“It is always a fulfilling experience to work with a customer like Toby’s Estate who are especially passionate about improving their recycling.”
Toby’s Estate was one of the businesses that came under the purview of Cleanaway’s Centre for Sustainability in NSW EPA’s Bin Trim Round 4 program which took place from May 2021 to February 2022. This project is a NSW Environment Protection Authority, Waste Less Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy.
The coffee company’s goal was to identify areas for improvement in its push for zero waste. Through Bin Trim Round 4 assessments, our Centre for Sustainability (C4S) team was able to make recommendations on recycling some of the material that was going into the general waste streams at two Toby’s Estate sites in Sydney – Alexandria and Chippendale.
One of the recyclable materials that came into focus during the assessments was soft plastics. The C4S team assisted the business in setting up a collection system for this waste stream at the two Toby’s Estate sites.
Currently, both clear and coloured soft plastics are collected in bags to be taken away for recycling at our Greenacre facility.
The other waste stream the C4S team looked at was Toby’s Estate hessian coffee bags which were initially categorised as an organic waste stream. However, the business was facing difficulties in getting an organics recycler to accept this material.
The C4S team assisted Toby’s Estate by contacting textile recyclers and enquired on what kind of collection and recycling services they could provide. This search eventually led Toby’s Estate to partner with WornUp, a textile recycler that could recycle the coffee bean bags.
Pictured: Toby’s Estate hessian coffee bean bags sorted for recycling.
Chaff was another potentially recyclable material our C4S team looked into. Chaff is the husk of coffee beans and a problematic biproduct of the bean roasting process. While it is an organic material, it is also very light and usually ended up in the general waste bin.
With the C4S team’s recommendation, Toby’s Estate installed custom equipment to compact chaff and make it suitable for food organics recycling collection by Cleanaway.
Pictured: Toby’s Estate installed specialised machinery to assist with the compacting of coffee chaff for organics recycling.
Toby’s Estate has now increased its total landfill diversion from 24 tonnes per year to 42 tonnes per year.
The volume of waste recovered has also significantly increased at its two sites. The Alexandria site increased from 52% to 86% by volume while its Chippendale site diversion increased from 28% to 84% by volume.
Resource Recovery Specialist Helina Kila says, “It is always a fulfilling experience to work with a customer like Toby’s Estate who are especially passionate about improving their recycling.”
“Finding solutions for their problem waste was made possible with the assistance of the Cleanaway network and knowledge of our staff. We will continue to look for alternative ways to divert additional waste from landfill for the customer to progress their waste management.”
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