Brisbane coffee king goes green with compostable cups on environmental mission

Coffee can solve a lot of the world’s problems but now your morning routine can be a little greener with a Brisbane coffee king leading the way in reducing our carbon footprint.

A nice hot cup of coffee is a rite of passage for many Queenslanders, but now you can have your morning poison and feel a little less guilty.

It comes as a Brisbane coffee king is determined to reduce his business’s carbon footprint on the environment.

A switch by Merlo to compostable cups has had the same effect on the environment as removing 500 cars from the road.

The huge pay-off from the switch was revealed in Merlo’s latest impact certificate from its compostable cup supplier BioPak, showing a carbon offset of 1,272,746kg last financial year.

Merlo Coffee Bio Cup launch at Paddington cafe. Picture: Jono Searle for Sequel PR and Merlo.

Australians throw out 2.7 million single-use or disposable coffee cups every day and most are not environmentally friendly.

Merlo Coffee general manager David Holt said the Merlo team at Eagle Farm pioneered the move three years ago.

He says regardless of the extra cost, it had been an investment the coffee producer believes it had to make.

“Many coffee retailers simply aren’t green because they won’t or can’t wear the additional costs,” Mr Holt said.

“Being environmentally-friendly currently costs more, but we believe Merlo has a responsibility to make this investment back into the community and environment.”

Now Australia’s largest private coffee roaster uses compostable BioPak coffee cups throughout its wholly owned cafes, as well as hundreds of other cafes that sell Merlo coffee.

“It’s ironic that when you drink or serve a coffee from a blue Merlo cup, you’re in fact being very green,” Mr Holt said.

Dean Merlo at the Coffee Bio Cup launch at Paddington cafe. Picture: Jono Searle for Sequel PR and Merlo.

He said Merlo’s significant investment in cutting-edge sustainable packaging had come at the right time.

“During Covid, health regulations have prevented customers using their own cups and the industry has had to return to offering takeaway-only cups,” Mr Holt said.

“The move to bio-cups has made a meaningful difference to the waste Covid could have caused,” Mr Holt said.

“As coffee leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure the industry is sustainable but also we want coffee customers to now expect quality coffee producers, like Merlo, to be socially responsible.”

Merlo has also prevented 43,732kg of plastic been thrown out across the state in the past year.

“The weight of the plastic we’ve stopped been thrown out in Queensland is the equivalent to a herd of around 90 elephants,” Mr Holt said.

“Back in 2018, we made the conscious decision to make all our takeaway cups, lids, and packaging compostable and of course removed plastic straws.”