Bag Disposal

All core materials of our retail bags, valve and zipper included, are made of 100% compostable materials. The outer layer is kraft paper, and the inner layer is polylactic acid (PLA) filament. Kraft paper is simply compressed wood pulp, and PLA is a common bioplastic produced via fermentation of plant-based resources like corn, cassava, sugarcane, or sugar beet pulp. Both of these materials will fully biodegrade under the right conditions and leave no toxicity in the soil. The labels (for now!) are trash. Please remove them before disposing of the bags.

There are three preferred routes for disposal:

1. Send to a commercial composting facility.
   This is the best option if there's an available service in your area. The bags are certified via DIN CERTCO to meet both European EN 13432 and American ASTM D6400 industrial composting standards. Under these conditions, the bags will fully break down within 3 - 6 months.
2. Toss directly into your home compost bin.
   Home composting doesn’t create the same type of intense heat that’s used in commercial facilities, so the degradation happens at a much slower rate. Though the materials do not carry certifications for this style of composting, they’ve been anecdotally confirmed to fully break down within 1 - 2 years under home composting conditions.
3. Return empty bags to our cafe.
   We’ve established a bag return program to help ensure as many bags as possible are properly disposed of in a commercial composting facility. You’ll receive $1 off a new retail bag of coffee for each one you return. Win / win!