Our packaging

• Outer layer: PLA, 25µm
• Middle layer: white Kraft paper 50g, 60µm
• Inner layer: PLA, 60µm (300g) / PLA, 70µm (808g)

PLA (polylactic acid):

• PLA is a plant-based biodegradable polymer, derived from renewable sources such as sugar cane, corn or other starch-rich plants.
• It is often used as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics.
• PLA is compostable under appropriate industrial conditions, which means it can break down naturally in special composting facilities.

Kraft:

• Kraft is a strong type of paper made from wood pulp that has not been chemically bleached, usually obtained from pine or spruce.
• It is known for its sturdiness and strength, which makes it suitable for various packaging applications.
• Kraft is often used to make bags, boxes and other food packaging because of its durability and natural look.

The combination of these materials gives the bag the strength it needs (kraft) and the barriers it needs (PLA) to keep the coffee in good condition. Coffee is a fragile product, and direct contact with ambient air degrades its aromatic properties.

The label is not compostable.

“Compostable, but not really” is our way of telling you two things at once: “We don’t have all the answers” and “We’re doing our best, within our zone of control”.

Our bag is made of kraft paper, polylactic acid (PLA) and rice paper. All are biodegradable materials, meaning they break down completely through the action of micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi).

Now, figuring out whether a biodegradable product is also compostable is where it gets complicated…

A quick status report on so-called compostable packaging:

• The degradation process of compostable packaging varies depending on the type of material, the size and above all the number and diversity of the different barriers it is made of. And our precious beans need several different layers to be preserved optimally (see the question above). Unfortunately, these essential barriers lengthen the degradation process.
• The brown bin wasn’t introduced to collect packaging, but food scraps. Composting table scraps is very different from handling packaging. The former can compost in about twenty days, while the latter can take months… Besides, you don’t get quality compost out of a pile of containers. That’s why many industrial composting facilities pull so-called compostable packaging out of their operations.
• In short, technically the bag really is compostable. But in practice, it may well not be composted, depending on the facility it ends up in. Believe us, we’re the first to be frustrated by that!

So what should you do with your “compostable, but not really” bag? See the next question.

The short answer: the trash.

The (slightly more detailed) answer:

• If possible, reuse it as much as you can! Drop by one of our bulk retailers (see the list in the 5^th question).
• Use it as a garbage bag instead of buying purpose-made ones, reducing the production of materials meant only to be thrown away. At home, we all have bags that unfortunately can’t confidently go in the recycling or compost bin: chip bags, delivery bags, frozen vegetable bags… and coffee bags.
• If you have a home compost, you can put the bag in it! Just make sure you remove the label first. We’d love to hear about your experience with how long it takes to break down in your home compost.
• If none of these options work for you, the most reasonable solution is unfortunately to put the bag in the trash. When industrial composting facilities pull out products they can’t process and throw them away, those products take 10 to 15% of genuinely compostable material with them. So it’s better not to add to the problem and to put an uncertain material straight in the trash :/

For one thing, it comes down to the absence of a truly recyclable option.

For packaging to be recycled, two conditions must be met:

1. It must be properly sorted by material.
2. That material must find a buyer.

However, in the case of a coffee bag, as mentioned above, preserving the product optimally requires an assembly of layers of different materials. That makes sorting the materials complicated, if not impossible!

You may have noticed “pouch”-style bags in semi-rigid plastic, made of a single material, on your roasters’ shelves. Unfortunately, there are very few buyers for this type of plastic, which most of the time ends up in landfill at best, and at worst is exported abroad in “mixed” bales whose future is more than uncertain...

Since no current option guarantees an ecological end of life, our decision is to consciously choose our impact, rather than to look for “the best bag”.

By going with the compostable version, we simply chose not to introduce more plastic into the environment.

Yes — here is the list of places that offer Zab coffee in bulk:

• Zab - 6201 St-Denis, Mtl
• Paquebot Bélanger - 2110 Bélanger, Mtl
• Paquebot Gaspé - 123 Rue de la Reine, Gaspé
• Léo - 1215 Rue Berri, Mtl
• Viridi café - 2410 Av. Bourgogne, Chambly
• Jato Marché local - 3144 Ontario Est, Montréal
• Café White & Compagnie - 31 Av. de la Gare, St-Sauveur
• Mollo - 2069 Wellington, Mtl
• Café Jardin - 5200 Wellington, Verdun

The plastic bag used to ship the bag of beans composts without any problem in most facilities, because it is made of a single layer from a single material. If you use bags for your compost, feel free to reuse this one instead of taking a new one!

These bags are neither recyclable nor compostable.

Here are the materials of the bag’s different layers:

• 18T OPP: “OPP” stands for “Oriented Polypropylene”, a type of plastic film commonly used for packaging because of its transparency, strength and barrier properties.
• 12PET: “PET” stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate, a plastic commonly used for bottles and containers. It is known for its transparency, light weight and recyclability.
• 7AL: “AL” generally stands for aluminium, so this layer could be aluminium. Aluminium is often used in packaging for its barrier properties, protecting the contents from light, oxygen and moisture.
• 90LLDPE: “LLDPE” stands for linear low-density polyethylene, a type of plastic known for its flexibility, strength and chemical resistance.